Jones gets shutout
Peterborough Billy Smith Sells Peewee AAA Petes overcame an early loss to reach the final of the Ottawa Senators AAA Shootout last month.
They’re hoping to do the same at the Boston Pizza Icefest, their home tournament, this weekend. For the first time the annual tournament, normally reserved for minor and major bantam teams, is also hosting a major peewee division.
The peewee Petes almost rallied from a 4-1 deficit clawing back to 5-4 which turned out to be the final score against the Guelph Gryphons in their opener Thursday at the Evinrude Centre.
“It’s your home tournament and you’re all excited and ready to go and for some reason we were flat-footed and started standing around,” said Petes coach Terry Fitzgerald. “(Guelph) has a couple of dynamic players and the one kid made a nice play to get a goal early on and it kind of took the wind out of our sails.”
The Petes scored goals with 3:51 and 2:53 remaining to make for a dramatic finish but for too much of the game, Fitzgerald said, his team didn’t play as he expects.
“We’re a tough, hard nosed team and we weren’t playing that way,” he said. “This is the year where they’re one step away from body contact so they let a lot more go and we were very soft on them today. We didn’t get in the way of them body-wise at all until the third period.”
They have three round-robin games left to turn their fortunes around. Peterborough Major Peewee AAA Petes' Alex Whitney skates after a rebound against Guelph Gryphons goalie Hayden Sabourin in opening game of the Boston Pizza Icefest Hockey Tournament on Thursday at the Evinrude Centre IGA Pad on Monaghan Rd. Peterborough lost 5-4. See more photographs from the game in the online gallery at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com.
“I’d like to get that team again later in the weekend and give them our full effort,” said Fitzgerald.
Lucas Moore, who scored for the Petes, said they hope to carry the momentum of their strong finish into the next game against Timmins North Stars at 11 a.m. Friday and the Ottawa Valley Titans at 4 p.m., both at the Evinrude Centre.
“We were down three goals and didn’t have much jump but as soon as we got those goals we almost came back and tied it up,” said Moore. “Last tournament we learned a lot about staying in games and that it’s not over until the buzzer goes. This game it showed.”
Nick Tripp led Peterborough with two goals while Cole Millitz also scored. Zack Lewis scored a hat trick for Guelph.
The Drain Brothers minor bantam Petes kicked off their tournament with a 3-1 win against the Kitchener Rangers. Jack Carey, Ryan Bell and Tommy Pollock scored for Peterborough. They’ll face the Ottawa 67’s 9:30 a.m. and the North Bay Trappers at 5:30 p.m. at the Evinrude on Friday.
The Rehill Building Supplies major bantam Petes opened with a 4-1 win over the Hamilton Huskies. Jack Falkner scored twice with Tyler Savard adding a goal and assist and Dane Young also scored. They’ll meet Timmins at 12:30 p.m. and CIHA Voyageurs at 7 p.m. at the Evinrude.
The tournament concludes Sunday with finals in all three divisions at the Memorial Centre beginning at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The Peterborough R.J. Brown peewee AA Petes won 3-0 at home Wednesday against the Pickering Panthers in Lakeshore League action. Cam Jones recorded the shutout. Scoring for the Petes were Nathan Conner, Jordan Lemoire and Carter Wilson. Assists to Carter Jacobs, Matthew Hinan, Kris Kastely, Daniel Watmough, Thomas Darling and Jack Crawford.