Petes ready for Round 2
Petes get week of rest ahead of next series starting Thursday against opponent still to be determined
The Peterborough Petes have a small taste of playoff success this year and it has whet their appetite for more.
The Petes got a well-earned two days off from the coaching staff after completing a 4-0 sweep Thursday of the Niagara IceDogs in the OHL’s Eastern Conference quarter-finals. They got back to work on Sunday and Monday with afternoon practices in preparation for the conference semifinals.
But they won’t know until Tuesday night who they will face next. They’ll meet the winner of Game 7 between the fourth place Kingston Frontenacs and fifth place Hamilton Bulldogs at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.
The first place Petes expect to host the winner at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at the Memorial Centre. The other conference semifinal pits the second place Mississauga Steelheads against the third place Oshawa Generals.
This is just the second time since 2006 the Petes have reached the second round. In 2014 they roared back from a 3-0 series deficit to knock off Kingston but drained their tanks significantly in doing so. In the next round they were swept by a rested and heavily favoured Oshawa. This year, the Petes will be the rested team and as the conference’s regular season pennant winners they’ll be the favourites.
That’s a tag they’re comfortable with because their goals this year go beyond just making it to the second round.
“It’s been a while since the city has been this excited about our team,” said Peterborough native and third-year Pete Logan DeNoble. “To win that first series in four games is a big confidence boost for a lot of guys and the way we did it with a lot of guys contributing. We’re really excited about it, for sure.”
They won the series with contributions from throughout the lineup much like they’ve done all season. This is not a team led by superstars, it’s a team with depth and balance from the net through the defence and at forward. They had 17 of 19 skaters contribute at least a point and eight players average a point-per-game or better.
“That’s one of the strong suits of our team,” DeNoble said. “Any night it can be whoever stepping up and getting a big goal. It’s not only the goals, it’s the blocked shots, the hits, we had a couple of big fights that gave us momentum. Everyone is contributing in their own way and it’s really good to see.”
It will be a week between games when the Petes start the second round and DeNoble says that rest will serve them well.
“After a hard fought series some guys were a little banged up and it’s nice to have some time to rest and recover,” he said. “It’s definitely an advantage to get some time off.”
They’ve been eager to find out their next opponent.
“Almost every night we’re checking the scores to see what’s going on around the league. It’s safe to say we’re the team to beat in the east and we’re going to have to keep playing our game and we should have some success,” DeNoble said.