Fergus Whalers slip by Walkerton in playoff opener
FERGUS – The Fergus Whalers opened the Provincial Junior Hockey League’s Pollock Division playoffs with a 3-2 victory over the Walkerton Capitals Tuesday at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex.
The game was the first playoff match for the Whalers in their inaugural season.
Fergus scored once in each period for the win while Walkerton had one goal in the first and another one in the second period.
Boden Brimmell scored the game-winner for the Whalers at 7:47 of the third period.
Ty Anselmini scored the other two goals for Fergus and also assisted on the winning goal while Henry Turner assisted on all three goals. Jett Morningstar and Ryan McDougall each had one assist.
Daniel Norton and Keegan Fischer scored for Walkerton while Aiden Stanley, Austin Drew, Chase Lorenz and Markus Grajnar-Ptok had single assists.
The Whalers never led until their third-period goal.
Fergus outshot Walkerton 33-28 thanks to an 18-11 advantage in the second period. The Whalers were scoreless on two power plays while the Capitals went 1-for-4 on their power play.
Bradley Boville had 26 saves for Fergus and Vance Meyer had 30 for Walkerton.
The Whalers had finished fourth in the division at the completion of the regular season at 20-17-3-2 (W-L-OTL-T) while Walkerton was fifth at 18-20-2-2.
Second game of the best-of-seven series is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Walkerton Community Centre while Game 3 is to go Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex.
- Guelph Sports Journal