Petes shut out Wolves
Pavel Gogolev snaps a nine-game scoring drought with two goals to lead the Petes to a 4-0 win in Sudbury.
SUDBURY – The Peterborough Petes took another step forward on Friday night.
Pavel Gogolev snapped a ninegame scoring drought with a pair of goals to lead the Petes past the Sudbury Wolves 4-0 before 2,735 fans at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Dylan Wells stopped 24 shots for his first shut out of the season as the Pet es picked up their second win in as many nights. They snapped a threegame losing streak with an overtime win Thursday against the Hamilton Bulldogs. The Petes handed the injury-riddled Wolves, who are last in the Eastern Conference, their fourth-straight defeat. The Petes jumped from fifth to third in the conference and sit two points behind first-place Hamilton.
With the Petes returning four players from injury and suspension in the last week, they appear to be getting back on track after a three-week slump. They’ll find out Saturday night when they visit the red hot Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, who are riding a 10-game winning streak, to cap three games in three nights.
“One of my messages was (Thursday’s) game really doesn’t matter if we don’t come out with that same determination and effort tonight ,” said Pet es coach Jody Hull. “I thought we did. The nice thing is I was able to roll four lines and we stayed pretty fresh for the entire game.
“We’ve been going through the same thing (Sudbury) is going through and it’s unfortunate teams have to go through these things,” said Hull, referring to the injuries. “We’re glad we’re kind of getting back to the way we were three weeks ago. I still think we’re a little ways away, not much, but it was nice to see everyone contributing in some way, shape or form tonight.”
The Petes showed no signs of bus legs after a long drive earlier in the day jumping on the Wolves early. They were up 10-0 in shots when they opened the scoring at 9:03. Nikita Korostelev capped a tic-tac-toe passing play, from Nick Robertson and Matt Tim ms, beating newly acquired goalie Mario Cu lin a blocker-side.
Adam Timleck got his first goal since returning Thursday from an injury burying Logan DeNoble’s centering pass from behind the Wolves’ net 1:31 later.
Gogolev notched his first of the night 11:58 into the second period on a broken play. His intended pass hit a Wolves’ skate and came back to him and he stuffed it in the open side.
“Those 10 games I had weren’t going well,” Gogolev said. “(Thursday) we had a big win and today was a really good win and I got two goals so I’m pretty happy about that. I want to keep that rolling. I was trying not to worry about those other games and just playhockeyandenjoythegame.It worked for me well tonight.”
His second goal 4:36 later completed a slick give-and-go from long-time teammate Semyon Der-Arguchintsev.
“He drove the net real hard ,” Hull said ,“and Se my on made a great pass across to him driving back door and it was a great tap-in.”
The Wolves struggled to muster much offence all night not recordin gas hot on goal in the third period until the 11 th minute. While the Pet es didn’t add any goals Hull thought it was one of his team’s best periods all season.
“Smart, moving the puck, letting the puck do the work as opposed to trying to beat guys. We looked really fast by playing that way,” he said.
NOTES: The Petes made one lineup change inserting Chad Denault to play in his hometown while John Parker-Jones was scratched.... The Petes will return home Thursday to face Sault Ste. Marie in their lone game next week.