Petes stopped by Propp in loss to Battalion
The Peterborough Petes looked like a team that can’t wait for the season to be over on Thursday night.
The Petes suffered their eighth loss in a row 5-1 to the North Bay Battalion before 3,128 fans at the Memorial Centre.
Eliminated from playoff contention on March 8, some of the Petes looked to be going through the motions.
They have two regular season games left including Friday night in Oshawa when they’ll try to snap a franchise worst 20-game losing streak on the road against the Generals at the Tribute Communities Centre. The Petes will close out the season 7:05 p.m. Saturday when they host the Eastern Conference leading Hamilton Bulldogs.
Despite a fairly even territorial split in the first period the Petes emerged trailing 3-0 and the deficit grew to 5-0 after 40 minutes. A lot of fans left the arena following the second period.
The game was competitive until North Bay scored a pair of goals in the final 3:03 of the first period for a 3-0 lead.
North Bay went ahead 7:07 into the game when Dylan Wells stopped Braden Henderson’s point shot but Brad Chenier crashed the net to poke in the loose puck.
Nikita Korostelev had the Petes best scoring chance when goalie Christian Propp stopped his point-blank shot and the Petes’ forward had to jump to avoid crashing into the goalie.
Jake Henderson put North Bay ahead 2-0 at 16:51 blowing a shot over Wells’s glove from the wing.
Matt Struthers was left alone in the slot to convert Justin Brazeau’s centering pass after Luke Burghardt dug the puck out of the corner at 18:08.
A tough break cost the Petes the fourth goal with the two teams playing four-on-four. Struthers was trying to move the puck across the front of the Petes’ net when Korostelev tried to corral it with his feet and instead the puck ricocheted past Wells.
When the Petes had their chances they couldn’t solve Propp who dove across his crease to rob DeNoble on a set up with the enire side of the net inviting him.
North Bay almost made it look easy at times scoring on a two-onone break when Burghardt buried a feed from Struthers with 5:36 left in the second period.
The Petes came closest to breaking the goose egg late in the peirod when Chris Paquette rang a shot off the crossbar.
The Petes broke a shutout streak of more than five periods, including a 4-0 loss Sunday in Sudbury, when DeNoble scored with 6:56 left in the game. Nick Robertson moved in on a power play and fed DeNoble who swiped his 30th goal of the season past Propp. It was his second consecutive 30-goal campaign.