The Hampton Roads Whalers Bantam AA team ended an 11 game skid of 0-9-2 with a hard fought win 4-3 over the visiting Ashburn Extreme 97 team Saturday night at the Chilled Ponds.

The Extreme didn't let it come easy for the hometown team.  Ashburn started the scoring with a shorthanded goal at the 4:19 mark of the first period by Devin Melice to take a 1-0 lead after 1 period of play.  The Whalers struck back in the 2nd period when Trevor Neubauer converted on a nice pass from Regen Cavanagh and Derek Palandro at the 5:35 mark of the 2nd to tie it 1-1.  Less than a minute later Logan Smith burried his 4th goal of the season at 4:44 after a nice feed from Ryan Ziemann and Dylan Harris to give the Whalers a 2-1 lead after 2 periods.  In the 3rd period Zach McDaniel scored at the 5:09 mark from Regen Cavanagh and Trevor Neubauer to make it 3-1 Whalers.  Ashburn wouldn't go away as John Litscher made it 3-2 at the 4:28 mark to bring Ashburn within one late in the game.  Zach McDaniel responded again for the Whalers as he forechecked hard and forced a turnover and snuck the puck between the pads of the Ashburn netminder from Caelan Bolanowski at the 3:10 mark to make it 4-2 Whalers.  Ashburn made it 4-3 with :50 seconds left when Whalers defenseman Caelan Bolanowski batted the puck into his own net.  Goaltender Jack Herrick made several key saves late, as well as 28 saves overall to preserve the 4-3 win.  Shots in the game were 31-31, the Whalers were 0-5 on the powerplay, the Extreme didn't have a powerplay in the game.

Next up: The Whalers take to the road this weekend with two contests against the Ashburn Extreme 97 and one against the Reston Raiders.