Plymouth Whalers First Day Scrimmage Wrap-Up - Junior Hockey News

For the first time since Mid-April, the Plymouth Whalers took the ice on Thursday as they began the first of two-a-day scrimmages. Each scrimmage consisted of two-25 minute periods.

In the morning scrimmage, Mathieu Henderson and Cody Payne netted one goal each and Matt Mahalak stopped all the shots he faced as Team Blue beat Team White 2-0. Henderson, who played last season for the Brantford 99ers was drafted by the Whalers in the seventh round, 121st overall, in this past April's OHL Priority Selection.

Team Blue also got goals from JT Miller and Stefan Noesen as they won another 2-0 score in the five-round shootout.

The afternoon scrimmage saw more scoring as Team White tied Thursday's AM/PM scrimmage series with a 5-4 win over Team Blue. Alex Aleardi found the net twice, including the game winner on a penalty shot as he beat Alex Nedeljkovic at 9:50 of the second half. Team White also got two goals from Rickard Rakell with Garrett Meurs netting the other goal. Rile Corbin got the win for his team.

Mahalak let in four of the Whalers goals, while Nedeljkovic took the loss as he gave up the lone goal to Aleardi in the second half. Team White got two goals from Tom Wilson while Stefan Noesen and Zach Bratina. Bratina was the Whalers' first round pick in this past April's OHL Priority Selection.

In the afternoon shootout, the Blues prevailed 3-1 with goals from Miller, Colin MacDonald and Connor Carrick. Spencer Lee and Rakell scored for Team White.

The Whalers will back at the Compuware Arena on Friday for the second morning and afternoon scrimamges before they start a Labor Day Weekend Exhibition Series with the Windsor Spitfires.

Other OHL News: The Sudbury Wolves, who recently won the 2012 Junior Club World Cup, acquired forward Ray Huether from the Barrie Colts for a fifth round pick in 2014 and a 10th round pick in next year's draft. Huether scored 39 goals and added 28 assists with 28 penalty minutes for the Stratford Cullitons of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL). Huether was origially drafted by the Saginaw Spirti in the fifth round of the 2010 OHL Priority Selection. The Wolves begin Training Camp this Saturday.

Author: Alex Muscat