Petes cruise to first win
For second game, a crowd of more than 3,000 on hand to see Petes hand Gennies their first loss of season
It’s only the second game of the season but it was an important win for the Peterborough Petes on Thursday night.
After a 5-2 loss on home-ice a week earlier against the Erie Otters, the Petes knocked off the 2-0 Oshawa Generals 5-2 before 3,004 Memorial Centre spectators.
“It’s always good to get the first (win) out of the way,” said Cole Fraser, a physical force on the Petes’ back-end. “After our home opener guys were upset about that one. We wanted to come out and show our fans we’re coming back as strong as last year.”
“Any time Oshawa comes in here you want to get a win and you don’t want to start the year 0-2,” said captain Logan DeNoble, who along with Tyler Rollo had a goal and assist while Jonathan Ang had a goal and two helpers. “It gives us confidence going into the weekend where if we’d lost tonight it puts a little pressure on us.”
Petes coach Jody Hull said it was nice to see a second straight crowd over the 3,000 mark something that didn’t happen until the second half last season.
“Especially when the lower bowl is full and you can hear the fans,” Hull said. “Even when things aren’t going your way you can still here a buzz in the arena and it does help.”
Despite being outshot 20-11 the Petes led 1-0 after 20 minutes on Declan Chisholm’s first goal of the season 1:12 into the game. DeNoble and Ang worked the puck back to the point where Chisholm slammed it through a crowd.
The Petes roared out for the second with a renewed vigor after a chat amongst the players at intermission.
“Some of the leaders, some of the older guys said some stuff,” Fraser said.
“We didn’t like our game too much in the first,” DeNoble said. “Wellsy continued to play great and made a couple os saves in a row where they had good opportunities. We said we needed to tighten up in our own zone.”
The Petes went up 2-0 on a short-handed goal. Rollo stole the puck from Matt Brassard and slid a two-on-one pass Chris Paquette tapped in at 7:10.
Danil Antropov redirected Sean Allen’s point shot to get Oshawa on the board. The Petes struck 11 seconds later as impressive rookie Nick Robertson set up Rollo who missed game one to illness.
“That was a good bounce back shift for us,” Hull said. “We put Tyler, Matyas and Nick out there for a little bit of energy and they gave it to us.”
Despite being an overage, Rollo is only in his second OHL season and is trying to stake a claim to more playing time.
“Tyler is one of those guys every coach wants because he can play any position up front, can play either special team and be effective at it. Having that versatility makes him valuable,” Hull said.
Rollo was just happy to be back playing.
“Especially against Oshawa,” he said. “All the guys wanted to come out strong against these guys.”
Oshawa got back within a goal with 38 seconds left in the second as Domenic Commisso buried Jack Studnicka’s centering pass.
Wells saved the Petes bacon stopping Kyle MacLean on a short-handed breakaway and Peterborough scored on the rush back up the ice. Ang’s high shot rebounded off the glass out front where DeNoble bunted it in 9:04 into the third.
“Dylan made a couple of saves that gave everybody a little bit of energy,” Hull said. “That’s what you want your goaltending to do. We fed off that.”
Ang snapped a two-on-one shot home to seal the deal 1:52 later.
It was the Petes first game without Matt Timms, who broke a bone in his foot, meaning three rookies played defence.
“The younger guys ate up some big minutes and played really well,” Hull said.