Petes lacking spark
Despite return of DeNoble, Gallant, Petes drop 4-1 decision to Oshawa Generals
The Peterborough Petes are missing a spark.
Despite getting Logan DeNoble and Zach Gallant back into the lineup the Petes lacked zip for a second day in a row falling 4-1 to the Oshawa Generals who had been struggling themselves.
The Petes have mustered just 39 shots while being outscored 8-1 in their past two games and have dropped four of their last five. The Petes opened the scoring in front of 3,143 Memorial Centre spectators before giving up four unanswered goals.
“To a man on our staff we’re disappointed in some of our leaders, our better players,” said Petes’ assistant coach Andrew Verner. “Some of our difference makers just aren’t making a difference enough as often as we need them to.”
He said they were pleased with how DeNoble and Gallant played given how long they’d been out. They made a difference on the penalty kill where Oshawa was held scoreless on five chances.
“We got some guys back today and it’s tough to know what to expect from guys who have been out,” said Verner. “If other guys were looking around the room waiting for them to turn it around for us, it didn’t happen. A lot of guys were flat and it was disappointing for us to watch that.”
It doesn’t get any easier Sunday when they visit the Kitchener Rangers. It’s time to get back on track, says Verner.
“This league doesn’t stop. We need to get some points and claw our way back to the position we think we can be and where we were before we had our rash of injuries,” he said.
“It was a couple of frustrating weeks sitting out,” DeNoble said. “Obviously, you want to be in the lineup every night.”
DeNoble thought he played OK in working off some rust but thought the team as a whole has to be better.
“A rival like that you don’t want
to lose and lose the way we did. I don’t think we played a very good game tonight and didn’t deserve to win,” DeNoble said. “We weren’t good in our own end tonight. We were turning pucks over at our own blue-line. We didn’t generate a whole lot of offence. It looked like we were passing up on some good opportunities to get a shot on net and were trying to make the pretty plays.”
Petes’ rookie Chad Denault picked up his first OHL point assisting on Nick Robertson’s opening goal 9:15 into the game. Denault relayed Austin Osmanski’s breakout pass to Robertson who looked like he might have skated himself out of room but tucked a backhand under the crossbar past goalie Cole Ceci.
Oshawa tied it 3:43 later when Danil Antropov came out of the
corner to set up rookie Nick Wong ’s ninth goal.
The teams were trading chances in the second when Wong’s long pass sprung Jack Studnicka on a breakaway where he put a low shot past Dylan Wells.
Ceci robbed DeNoble in the third with a glove save, off a Jonathan Ang set up, to keep Oshawa in front. Domenic Commisso put a long shot past Wells with four minutes remaining and Kenny Huether salted it away with an empty-net marker.
Gallant said there are highs and lows in a season and right now they’re at a low.
“We have to ramp up the intensity,” said Gallant. “We can’t really sit back like we have. We have to play with some grit and hard work.”