Whalers 5, Rangers 4 (OT)
Last night, the Plymouth Whalers beat the Kitchener Rangers in overtime, 5-4. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jiri Fischer walk through the doors early in the second. He seemed like he was enjoying the game, but didn’t stay to see the finish.
The Whalers now lead the Western Conference semifinals 3-0. They play tonight in Kitchener and hopefully will close out the series tonight.
The Whalers’ head coach (general manager and president) Mike Vellucci became the first American to win the OHL coach of the year award, the Matt Leyden Trophy. The Whalers finished the regular season second in the league with a 49-14-2-3 record. Vellucci received 53 first place votes. The runner up, Mike Kelly of the Mississauga IceDogs, received 35 first place votes.
“I adjusted my game plan,” Vellucci explained following the announcement of his Leyden win Tuesday. “We were focusing too much on what happened in the last game instead of what was lying ahead.
“We began preparing more for the opponent up front instead of worrying about what we just did.”
Freeing his defencemen to join attacks also was an adjustment that paid off handsomely.
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