Five-goal night for McCarthy in Dukes win
The Peterborough Drain Brothers Minor Bantam AAA Petes are off to their best start ever.
The Petes are 5-3 in league play after taking seven games to get a win last season when they missed the playoffs. They also sit in first place in their pool with two wins and an overtime loss after day two of the Peterborough Minor Hockey Council’s Boston Pizza Icefest Tournament.
The Petes rebounded from a 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Jr. 67’s in the morning to blank the North Bay Trappers 6-0 Friday night at the Evinrude Centre. It clinches the Petes a spot in Saturday’s quarter-finals. They have one round-robin game left 11 a.m. Saturday against Ottawa Myers at the Evinrude Centre.
“The last four or five years we’ve been struggling a bit,” said minor bantam Petes player Jack Carey. “This year we’ve just completely changed our mindset and positivity about each other and the team. I think that’s really working and you’re really noticing that in the results of our games.”
After winning their opening game on Thursday, the Petes led Ottawa 2-1 going into the third but lost in the fourth overtime minute. They responded by spanking a North Bay team they tied last month in an earlybird tournament in Ottawa.
Shawn Tucker took over as the minor bantam coach this year sliding down from the major midgets. He made two changes and added five Peterborough Drain Brothers Minor Bantam AAA Petes' Jackson Stewart scores on Ottawa 67's goalie Charlie Schenkel during Boston Pizza Icefest Tournament action at the Evinrude Centre. The Minor Bantam Petes lost 3-2 in overtime. See more photographs from the game in the online gallery at www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com. players to improve the team’s depth. To continue the momentum of a strong start, Tucker said he’s tried to raise the team’s expectations for this tournament.
“This team hasn’t performed well in tournaments in the past so leading up to this tournament we, as a coaching staff, really put the emphasis on the players to stay in the moment. Take it game by game and they’ve really done a terrific job so far.”
Carey said it was an important bounce-back win against North Bay.
“A win like that gets your mind off the loss this morning and changes our focus and gives us a good start for tomorrow,” said Carey. “We just want to have fun, work hard and that will give us the best results we can get.”
Nate Cannon picked up the shutout against North Bay while Nick Roode and D.J. Clark scored two goals each with singles to Jackson Stewart and Cole Pottle. Roode and Stewart scored against Ottawa who got two goals including the winner from Zakary Lavoie.
The Rehill Building Supplies major bantam AAA Petes are 3-0 after sweeping a pair of games Friday. They beat both the Timmins North Stars and CIHA Voyageurs by 5-2 scores, They’ll close out roundrobin play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against the Cambridge Hawks at the Evinrude Centre.
The Billy Smith Sells Major Peewee AAA Petes rebounded from an opening day loss on Thursday to win both their games on Friday. They beat the Timmins North Stars 5-3 and the Ottawa Valley Titans 1-0. They close out round-robin play at 8 a.m. Saturday against the North Central Predators at the Evinrude Centre.
Finals in all three divisions will be held at the Peterborough Memorial Centre Sunday beginning at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. Liam McCarthy had five goals to pace the Douro M&M Disposals Midget Dukes past Campbellford 10-1 on Wednesday night. Holden Lowes, Haeden Moher, Jake Arnold, Riley Hoover and Parker MacDonald also scored for Douro. Adding assists were Riley Hoover, Lowes, McCarthy and Carter Scott.