Jones impresses in shootout
Ang scores winner as Petes win 3-2 in shootout over Fronts
KINGSTON – It’s been a week of firsts for promising young Peterborough Petes goalie Hunter Jones.
He started his first OHL game and earned his first win Monday in North Bay and on Friday participated in his first overtime and shootout. His stop on Bryan Lauriegh cemented a 3-2 win over the Kingston Frontenacs before 3,774 fans at the Rogers K-Rock Centre. The victory moved the Petes into a first place tie with the Barrie Colts atop the Eastern Conference.
Jonathan Ang scored in the fourthround of the shootout leaving it to Jones to seal the win. He stopped three of four shooters, after making 32 saves through 65 minutes, to lead the Petes to their second win over KIngston in as many nights and third in a row.
Adam Timleck and Sergey Popov exchanged shootout goals on blocker-side shots before Jones and Kingston’s Jeremy Helvig stopped the next two shooters. Ang snapped a shot glove side before Jones stopped Lauriegh.
“When Jonathan scored I thought ‘All right, now it’s my turn,’” Jones said. “I’d better step it up and get the win for the guys.”
Jones said he was more nervous in overtime than the shootout.
“At least in the shootout you can get away with one and the guys can help you out. In overtime it’s a little different if you make a mistake,” he said. “I just wanted to get through overtime and do my thing in the shootout. I didn’t think anything of it, I just tried to stay calm.”
“He’s had both games on the road and I remember from my playing days I feel like that’s the best way to start your career in any league,” said Petes goalie and assistant coach Andrew Verner.
“He was certainly good tonight. It was a funny game with not a lot of work for a period-and-a-half and then some penalties and into the overtime and shootout he was good.
“He’s a young guy who is going to be a very good goalie in this league.”
Kingston forced overtime with 63 seconds left in regulation time when Linus Nyman, left alone in front, tapped a rebound home with Helvig pulled for an extra attacker.
Kingston spent half the first period killing penalties, including a doubleminor and five-on-three, but the Petes only scored once.
Ang kept the puck in at the blueline and it moved quickly to Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Nikita Korostelev and to Logan DeNoble whose quick release found mesh at 11:39.
“The power play let us down a little bit early, we could have run away with it,” Verner said. “They hung around and took it to us a bit in the second half of the game.”
The Frontenacs didn’t have much going until Jason Robertson broke loose and beat Jones with some slick in tight 10:50 into the second. His goal came a night after younger brother Nick had the winning goal and an assist in the Petes’ 2-1 win in the first ever meeting between the siblings.
The Petes started the third period on a power play but Kingston had the best scoring chance on a two-on-one break as Jones stopped Ted Nichol on the original shot and Nyman on the rebound.
Kingston’s failure to clear the puck proved costly as Austin Osmanski picked up his first goal since joining the Petes at 4:56 into the third. He scored on a screen shot from the point.
The Petes came close several times in overtime with Helvig making big stops on Osmanski, Alex Black and Korostelev. Jones came up big stopping Connor Ali in the dying seconds.