Jr. Lakers pull off tie in OT
Seven straight losses before team fights hard against Orangeville
It wasn’t the two points they were hoping to get, but after losing their last seven games to fall to 1-11, the Peterborough Merit Precision Jr. A Lakers were able to see the bright side of getting one point after tying the Orangeville Northmen 6-6 in front of 242 fans at the Memorial Centre Monday night.
Riding four goals from Kyle Killen, the Lakers ran out to a 5-1 lead after the first period. Killen potted four of their goals. Nobody was potting anything in the second as the teams played to a rare scoreless frame.
Orangeville put a lot of pressure on in the third and pulled within a goal when Mac O’Keefe scored at 12:55. Peterborough responded, though. Zach Young lobbed a perfect pass ahead to Jordan Stouros, who scored a perfectly placed transition goal to make it 6-4 and give the home side a bit of breathing room.
Extra attacker goals by Dylan Riley and Austin Lane in the final 74 seconds of regulation time forced overtime. Neither team could score in the extra 10 minutes, although both generated some good chances and forced Orangeville’s Rylan Hartley and Peterborough’s Drew Hutchison to make timely saves.
“It’s not the two points that we wanted or needed necessarily but it’s one point closer and it puts us closer to our magic number,” said Lakers head coach Ken Watson.
Getting Tyler Gaulton and Jordan Stouros back contributed to a strong defensive effort (Gaulton was playing his first game of the season and Stouros his first at home).
“They’re experienced guys, they bring a lot of tenacity to the game,” Watson said. “They’re very athletic and very vocal on the floor.”
In a sign that management still believes the team can make a playoff push, the Lakers didn’t trade much sought-after last-year players Jake Fox, Nick Finlay and Killen at Saturday’s intra-provincial deadline.
“We’re all happy to stay here,” Fox said. “We’re Peterborough guys, we’ve been here for a while. I’ve been here for five years. Peterborough’s my home basically now so I’m very happy I get to stay here. I want to push for that playoff spot and shock people. I know we have the talent in the locker room. I’m just hoping the boys come together and we can get something going for these last seven games.”
Watson saw a positive sign in the way the team kept battling as Orangeville clawed its way back into the game. “In the past several games, when they started getting some goals and coming back we tended to fold up a bit and the other teams took advantage of that,” Watson said. “We battled through that mental aspect of the game. No one got down when they started getting on their run. We stayed focused, stayed in the game.”
Peterborough scorers: Kyle Killen (4-0), Jake Fox (1-1), Jordan Stouros (1-0), Taite Cattoni (0-3), Max Yarranton (0-2), Carter O’Connell (0-1), Zach Young (0-1)
Orangeville scorers: Austin Lane (2-2), Jeff Henrick (2-0), Mac O’Keefe (1-1), Dylan Riley (1-1), Braydon Cresswell (0-2), Matt Vangalen (0-2), Travis Brown (0-1), Kyle Staveley (0-1), Zac Masson (0-1)
Next for Peterborough: Thursday in Burlington, next Monday at home against Kitchener-Waterloo
Notes: Tests on forward Ethan Walker at the conclusion of his season at Denver University discovered an injury that will keep him out of the lineup until at least the end of the regular season.