The Allan Cup Hockey League’s newest team, the Welland Whalers, came close to getting their first win, losing 4-3 to the Brantford Blast Saturday night in front of 443 fans at the Welland Arena.

The Whalers, who are one of the youngest teams in the Senior AAA loop, have shown steady improvement since the season began and played perhaps their best game against the first place Blast.

The Blast led 3-2 after the first period and 4-3 after 40 minutes of play.

The Whalers outshot the Blast 14-9 in the third period and had several good scoring chances but were unable to beat Blast goaltender Ben Thomas for equalizer.

Dan Marwick, Mike Cordi and Yvan Charrois all scored for the Whalers.

Kyle Spurr had a pair of goals for the Blast, who improved to 7-0-0.

Brantford was 2 for 6 with the man advantage while Welland struggled on the power play going 1 for 10.

Newly signed Rick Miller made his first appearance in the Whalers’ net, making 30 saves.

The Whalers are back in action on Friday when they travel to Orillia for a 7:45 pm game.

SCORING SUMMARY

Period 1
Brantford - Kyle Spurr (powerplay) (Dave Russell, Chad Spurr) 3:33
Welland - Dan Marwick (Jeff Zatorski) 10:51
Brantford - Ryan Healy (powerplay) (Chad Spurr, Kyle Spurr) 13:17
Welland - Mike Cordi (Rick Miller) 15:15
Brantford - Brad Jones (Chris Rebernik, Marcus Ruberto) 17:47

Period 2
Welland - Yvan Charrois (powerplay) (unassisted) 14:52
Brantford - Kyle Spurr (Jon Jankus, Greg Bullock) 16:28

Period 3
(no scoring)