Petes rebound for a win
Goalie Dylan Wells blocks 49 shots to lead Petes to road win over Eastern Conference leading Sudbury Wolves.
SUDBURY – Dylan Wells has worked hard on the mental aspect of goaltending to put a bad goal or bad game behind him.
On Friday night he did just that.
Wells made 49 saves, a day after being pulled from a 6-1 loss to the Sarnia Sting at home, to lead the Peterborough Petes past the Eastern Conference leading Sudbury Wolves 4-2 at Sudbury Arena.
Wells made key saves at key moments in helping his team to a second straight road win. It lifted the club back to .500. They also got balanced scoring from four different players.
“It’s never fun getting pulled or having a period like that,” Wells said, of giving up four goals on 13 shots in the first period Thursday.
“I felt like I let the boys down in a sense. You give it a little time to think about it and reflect on what I could have done better, but I moved on last night. I wasn’t even thinking about it tonight.”
“There were no fingers pointed at Dylan (Thursday),” Petes coach Jody Hull said. “The reason he got pulled was to try to shake up the team and get us going. You feel bad because the guy has been pretty consistent throughout the year so far. It was nice to see he was able to rebound and have a huge game for us.”
The Petes were outshot 13-6 in the first period but led 1-0 on Josh Coyle’s first goal of the season with 2:04 left in the period. Troy Henley’s long pass sprung Coyle whose wrist shot went in off the glove of Wolves goalie Jake McGrath.
The Petes carried momentum from the late goal into the second as Steve Lorentz and Adam Timleck scored 4:37 apart on similar overpowering wrist shots. It chased McGrath after three goals on 11 shots in favour of Zack Bowman.
Hull was pleased with the bounce back by his team but he’d prefer more consistency.
“It’s been two weekends in a row it’s happened,” he said. “We lose in Oshawa (Oct. 14) and then play well in Owen Sound. We weren’t very good (Thursday) and we played good tonight. I don’t like that trend. We have to make sure we address it the right way. If we play the way we did tonight at home, we’ll be a pretty fun team to watch.”
The Wolves got on the board on a power play as Dmitry Sokolov cashed in Alan Lyszczarczyk’s rebound at 10:00. Logan DeNoble restored the three-goal lead 1:50 later on a man-advantage. He was parked in front where the puck popped loose to him from behind the Wolves’ net.
The Petes had a chance to put the game away when David Levin was assessed a five-minute kneeing major that put C.J. Clarke out of the game. Hull said it’s too early to know the extent of Clarke’s injury. Aiden Jamieson also took an instigating penalty in a fight with Cole Fraser giving the Petes a two-minute, five-on-three advantage.
The Wolves killed the power plays and it gave them a lift as Chandler Yakimovich pulled them within a goal with 1:41 left in the second. They had the Petes hemmed in the rest of the period and much of the third. Wells made a quick pad save on Lyszczarczyk on a delayed Petes’ penalty. He made saves in several Wolves’ flurries and got help as Sudbury hit three posts.
“It’s a huge two points,” Wells said. “It’s never fun losing on home ice like we did in front of our own fans. To get a bounce back like this is huge for our team and for the morale in the locker room.”