Petes rally to win ninth in row
Dramatic comeback with four unanswered goals in third before season-high crowd
Peterborough Petes kicked off the second half of the OHL season the way they ended the first – winning.
This time it took a dramatic comeback as they outscored the Ottawa 67’s 5-2 in the third period, rallying from three two-goal deficits, to win 7-5 Thursday night. It was before a season-high 3,055 Memorial Centre patrons.
It extended the Petes’ winning streak to nine games, their longest since a club record 15 in 200506, and drew them within three points of the Oshawa Generals for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Petes are also now 9-1 in their first game after the Christmas break over the past decade.
The Petes fired four unanswered goals, outshooting Ottawa 20-6 in the final period. Logan DeNoble tied the game 11:19 into the third and Jonathan Ang gave the Petes their first lead 1:30 later. He picked off Noel Hoefenmayer’s pass then beat goalie Leo Lazarev bar down on a deke to the backhand. Matthew Timms sealed the win with an empty-net goal.
“Once we tied it you could sense we weren’t going to lose this game,” said Petes head coach Jody Hull. “One thing I’ve been harping on our guys during this stretch is good teams have to keep pushing themselves to get better. We showed some resilience tonight. In this stretch our third period has been our best period. It was no different tonight.
“We weren’t very good, but because of the streak we’re on we found a way to win. We saved our best to last. It was nice to see a lot of energy in the building,” Hull said.
Kyle Jenkins, who had a goal and assist, said the team fed off the energy of the big crowd.
“That was nice, being in that atmosphere where it’s loud after a goal or a big play,” Jenkins said. “We build off that. That’s how hockey works.”
Not much was said in the second intermission as Ang said they knew what they had to do.
“We know as a group we can come back from those one-goal and twogoal games,” said Ang. “Our whole team knew about our eight-game winning streak before the game and nobody wanted to lose that. Going into the third period we just dug deep.”
67’s leading scorer Artur Tyanulin opened the scoring 5:26 in scooping a loose puck out of a crowd and banking a shot past Dylan Wells. The Petes tied it with a short-handed tally by Jenkins 6:50 later. Tyler Rollo retrieved Zach Gallant’s dump-in and fed Jenkins pinching into the slot.
Ottawa were the better team in the second and went up 3-1 on goals 6:38 apart. Timms gave the puck away to Sam Bitten who found Nolan Gardiner alone in the slot at 7:47. Ottawa scored again off a faceoff with Tyanulin setting up Patrick White.
The Petes got one back before the period ended as Ang drew two defenders to him then set up Zach Gallant in the high slot. Gallant’s shot hit Lazarev’s blocker and rolled up over his shoulder at 16:36.
The action came fast and furious in the third.
Travis Barron finished Jared Steege’s short-handed two-on-one at 3:01. The Petes replied 22 seconds later when Gallant redirected Matt Spencer’s point shot.
Tyanulin fed Bitten at the side of the Petes’ crease restoring the two-goal lead at 4:35.
A disallowed Gallant goal 48 seconds later didn’t stop the Petes.
Nick Isaacson collected a blast off the back glass and fed C.J. Clarke in front to close the gap to 5-4. DeNoble tied it 2:17 later burying a rebound off Jenkins’s point shot.