PETES REMAIN UNDEFEATED IN THE OHL PLAYOFFS
Kingston coach vows Frontenacs will be more competitive in Game 2 on Sunday
The layoff was slightly less of a disadvantage than the quick turnaround in Game 1 of the OHL Eastern Conference semifinal.
After a week off the Peterborough Petes pounced on the Kingston Frontenacs building enough of a lead to pull out a 4-2 win before a boisterous but disappointing crowd of 2,507 at the Memorial Centre.
The Petes built a 3-0 lead against a Kingston team that was playing less than 24 hours after an emotional Game 7 overtime win against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Kingston really didn’t get going until their first goal midway through the game. Both teams have two days off until resuming the series at 7:05 p.m. Sunday at the PMC.
“We had a really good start to the game,” said Petes coach Jody Hull. “I wasn’t sure how we were going to come out with the layoff. Typical of a Kingston team they didn’t go away and kept pressing and kept coming at us. It got pretty tight there for a while.”
Kingston coach Paul McFarland promised his team will be much better in Game 2.
“We can play a lot better, we will play a lot better and you’ll see a totally different hockey team on Sunday,” McFarland said. “We can work a lot harder than that. I would expect that to be our worst game of the series.”
After a tentative opening few minutes play picked up as Alex Black had to rush back to break up Jason Robertson’s breakaway five minutes in. The Petes began to apply pressure and were rewarded when Semyon Der-Arguchintsev danced around one check and absorbed another to dish the puck across the slot to Steve Lorentz who swept it past Jeremy Helvig at 11:29 opening the series scoring.
“I was a little bit lucky to beat the defence and Steve did a great job going to the net,” Der-Arguchintsev said. “That was our plan for the game and he just put it on net.”
Nikita Korostelev scored a highlight reel marker to make it 2-0 at 17:09. He picked up an errant clear off the boards and deked through three Frontenacs before slipping the puck between Helvig’s legs.
Asked if he’d scored a nicer goal, Korostelev replied: “It’s not for me to decide. I’m just happy to help the team win.” Lorentz said he’s seen it before. “There was one earlier in the year when he was playing for Sarnia against Kitchener which was absolutely gross,” Lorentz said. “His hands are some of the best in the league. We’re fortunate enough that we get to see it every day (in practice) but when he does it in a game like that and he makes guys look like they’re peewee hockey players it’s pretty special.”
The Petes scored 10 seconds into their lone power play, right after killing a penalty, to go up by three 6:31 into the second. Kyle Jenkins pinched off the point to put Korostelev’s cross-ice pass over Helvig’s glove.
“We did the right things early,” Jenkins said. “We were above pucks and didn’t give them chances to enter our zone and get sustained offensive pressure. We did a good job early. We let the foot off the gas in the second but I think we got back to it in the third.”
Kingston had little going their way until Sam Harding threw a puck on net that deflected off Jenkins’s stick past goalie Dylan Wells 64 seconds past the game’s midway mark. The Petes were outshooting Kingston 22-11 at the time.
It gave Kingston life as they outshot the Petes 7-2 the rest of the period and drew within one 8:23 into the third. Robertson, who had two assists, spun and fired a shot from the boards that Linus Nyman redirected.
The Petes didn’t have much going their way when Chris Paquette fired a shot from the corner that found its way past Paquette with 8:29 left. Kingston pressed with the goalie pulled with Ted Nichol hitting a post and Wells making some stops.