Road win remains elusive

Fronts break tie late in third period for 15th straight road loss

KINGSTON – It was another close one against a top OHL team but the Peterborough Petes fell just short Friday night.

Linus Nyman’s 32nd goal with 7:45 left in the third period gave the Kingston Frontenacs a 2-1 win over the Petes before 4,404 fans at the Rogers K-Rock Centre.

It was the 15th straight loss on the road for Petes, dating back to a Nov. 24 win in Sudbury. Kington picked up their 30th win while handing the Petes their 30th loss in a goaltending duel between the Petes’ Dylan Wells and Kingston’s Jeremy Helvig.

Wells made a brilliant save when Eemeli Rasanen’s point shot deflected off a Petes stick but Nyman as there to pot the rebound.

“It was a pretty good effort, really,” said Petes interim coach Andrew Verner. “We were a little bit slow coming out of the gate but Wellsy was

very good. We had a real good bounce back in the second period and were 1-1 with eight minutes to go.”

Verner said there was some blown coverage on the winning goal but more so some bad luck.

“A puck shot from the point was going wide and it hit one of our player’s hip and went back the other way,” said Verner.

Wells stretched so far to make the save “he had no chance” on the rebound, said Verner. “It was a bad break.”

With three regular forwards out of the lineup and only 10 dressed it led to a lot of ice for players not used to it.

“Everyone was in the game,” said Verner. “A lot of those guys played pretty well and played minutes they’ve never played before.”

It left the Petes four points behind the Mississauga Steelheads, who were idle on Friday night, for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Petes have 12 regular season games remaining and Mississauga 14.

The Petes are off Saturday and Sunday but host the Niagara IceDogs at 2 p.m. at the Memorial Centre on Family Day Monday. A family skating party, sponsored by Five Counties Children’s Centre, follows the game for fans with a game ticket.

The Petes came close in the game’s opening minute as a shot deflected off the skate of Kingston defender Jacob Paquette and off the goal post. Nyman had a glorious chance in close and Wells got enough of the shot to trickle the puck wide of the far post.

For the second night in a row the Petes fell behind on a shorthanded goal. The Petes fell asleep on the man-advantage leading to Ted Nichol spinning and firing a

pass into the slot Brett Neumann converted at 6:19.

Brady Hinz tied the game 2:47 into the third when Dow sprung him on a breakaway and Hinz put a shot over Helvig’s glove. It broke a shutout streak of more than five periods dating back to the Petes’ last visit to Kingston when Helvig shut them out 2-0. Less than a minute later Cliff Pu got a breakaway for Kingston but Wells closed up the five-hole to stop his deke attempt.

NOTES: Petes captain Logan DeNoble was held out of Friday’s lineup after leaving Thursday’s

game with an upper body injury. DeNoble is considered day-to-day. Petes forward Adam Timleck suffered a setback in his return from an upper body injury. After practising Tuesday and Wednesday he didn’t feel well on Thursday and hasn’t skated the past two days, said Petes interim coach Andrew Verner. With Cole Fraser also out with a similar upper body injury the Petes were short one skater and iced 10 forwards with seven defencemen .... See OHL Facts + Figures on Page D2.