Nedeljkovic earns first OHL shutout as Whalers extend win streak to eight games

Alex Nedeljkovic earned his first Ontario Hockey League shutout as the Plymouth Whalers blanked the visiting Sarnia Sting 4-0 on Saturday.

The 16-year-old rookie made 20 saves and improved his record to 13-1-1 with a 2.32 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.

Rickard Rakell had a goal and an assist for the Whalers (34-16-9), who extended their season-high win streak to eight games, while Tom Wilson, Mitchell Heard and Stefan Noesen rounded out the scoring.

Rakell's two-point outing extended his point streak to four games and includes six goals and four assists.

Vincent Trocheck had a single assist for Plymouth and has 15 goals and 26 points in his last 12 games. Since being acquired from the Saginaw Spirit in January, Trocheck has picked up a point in 18 of 19 games and has 39 points in a Whalers uniform.

After producing 18 points on Friday in a 13-3 victory against the Erie Otters, the Sting's (33-24-3) top line of Charles Sarault, Reid Boucher and Nikolay Godobin were held pointless and went a combined minus-4.

Sarnia's starting goaltender JP Anderson got the night off as backup Knicholas Dawe made 33 saves in a losing cause.

Neither club could produce with the power play as the Whalers went 0 for 3 and the Sting 0 for 5.

The victory gives Plymouth an eight-point lead over Sarnia atop the West Division standings.

Elsewhere in the OHL, it was: Kitchener 3, Sudbury 2; Niagara 4, Kingston 1; Belleville 5, Peterborough 2; Barrie 2, Guelph 0 and Owen Sound 6, Saginaw 2.

At Plymouth, Mich., Wilson opened the scoring for the Whalers at 13:19 of the first period.

Rakell doubled his club's lead at 5:27 of the second period and Heard made it 3-0 less than a minute into the third period.

Noesen added Plymouth's fourth goal at 5:38, which eventually led to a Sarnia timeout at 7:42.

The Sting had two power-play chances late in the third period, however they could only produce seven shots in the final 20 minutes and found themselves shut out for the third time this season.

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Rangers 3 Wolves 2

At Kitchener, Ont., Tobias Rieder had a goal and an assist and Joel Vienneau made 23 saves as the Rangers (33-19-5) jumped out to three-goal lead and held on to defeat Sudbury (26-22-11).

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IceDogs 4 Frontenacs 1

At St. Catharines, Ont., Chris Festarini made 34 saves and Brett Ritchie scored twice as the IceDogs (27-29-4) halted their four-game slide by beating Kingston (23-29-5), which trails Niagara by seven points for sixth spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

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Bulls 5 Petes 2

At Belleville, Ont., Tyler Graovac and Daniil Zharkov each scored twice and Joseph Cramarossa had a goal and two assists as the Bulls (37-14-6) beat Peterborough (21-31-7) to extend their win streak to eight games.

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Colts 4 Storm 0

At Barrie, Ont., Mathias Niederberger made 44 saves for his third shutout of the season and Steven Beyers scored the eventual winner as the Colts (37-19-4) blanked Guelph (39-20-5) to end a four-game winless streak.

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Attack 6 Spirit 2

At Owen Sound, Ont., Daniel Catenacci scored three times and assisted on two more while Jordan Binnington stopped 36 shots as the Attack (38-17-4) earned their fifth win in a row by defeating Saginaw (29-24-6).