Paquette enjoys playing in his hometown
The Peterborough Petes playoff ride has been a unique one for Chris Paquette.
In their opening round series, a 4-0 sweep of the Niagara IceDogs, Paquette was facing his old team. The Petes acquired Paquette from the IceDogs at the OHL trade deadline.
Now in round two, the Petes are facing Paquette’s hometown team. Paquette played his minor hockey for the Kingston Jr. Frontenacs.
“It was weird for me playing against my old teammates who I had known for three years,” Paquette said. “Playing against my hometown, I watched them growing up, is weird but it’s not. We’ve kind of created a hate rivalry playing against them. Every time I play against them I just want to play my best and show them and the people of Kingston what I can do.”
The Petes are one win away from their first Eastern Conference final appearance in 11 years. They lead Kingston 3-0 and will look to complete a second straight playoff sweep when they visit the Frontenacs at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Rogers K-Rock Centre. If they aren’t successful they’ll return to Peterborough for Game 5 on Saturday night. The series winner will face the winner of the Mississauga Steelheads versus Oshawa Generals series.
Paquette, who is not related to Frontenacs player Jacob Paquette, can usually count on a strong contingent of family and friends in the Kingston stands.
“It’s always fun playing against my hometown,” he said. “I have friends coming to the games in Kingston. They have a fun time and laugh at me sometimes on the ice.”
Game 3 proved to be the most difficult in the series for the Petes. They were outshot 34-17 and relied heavily on the goaltending of Dylan Wells.
Frontenacs head coach Paul McFarland talked to the Kingston Whig-Standard about Game 3’s performance adding to his team’s belief they can beat Peterborough.
“If anything, we proved to ourselves they don’t have an answer to our A game,” McFarland said.
That comment didn’t faze Petes head coach Jody Hull, whose team stayed in Kingston between games.
“We know as a group we weren’t very good (Tuesday) night,” Hull said, “but we also know there is lots of room for improvement. This time of year it’s about winning hockey games and we’ve been doing that.”
We know as a group we weren’t very good (Tuesday) night, but we also know there is lots of room for improvement. This time of year it’s about winning hockey games and we’ve been doing that.” Jody Hull, Petes head coach