Minor Midget Petes crash back to earth
The Peterborough Foley Bus Lines Minor Midget AAA Petes were brought down to Earth at the OHL Cup Showcase Tournament on Thursday.
After winning a wild card game on Tuesday to gain entry to the tournament and then opening the tournament with two straight wins on Wednesday, the Petes were crushed 9-1 by the Vaughan Kings on Thursday afternoon at Toronto’s Buckingham Arena.
All is not lost, though, as the Petes can clinch a quarter-final playoff spot with a tie or win in their final game of pool play at 1:15 p.m. Friday against the Northern Ontario Hockey Association.
The Petes edged one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Oakville Rangers, on Tuesday but against Vaughan, another pre-tournament favourites, they trailed 4-0 after the first period and 8-1 after two and were outshot 30-18.
Luc Reeve scored the lone Petes goal, his third of the tournament, assisted by Logan Maunder. Goalie Will Cranley was beaten on the first three shots he faced and was replaced 5:37 into the game by Will Craig who stopped 21 of 27 shots. Owen Perala led the Kings with three goals and an assist.
“Today wasn’t our day,” said Petes coach Scott Donato, “but we can’t dwell on it. In a tournament like this where we still control our own destiny tomorrow, and with what we did earlier in this tournament, if we win tomorrow we’re onto Saturday.”
The team talked about gaining confidence with the Oakville win, so what does this do for confidence?
“This is going to show the true character of our team,” Donato said.
“We’ve been a resilient team especially this week. No one expected us to be where we are right now. If you had told anybody we’d have one game to get into the quarter-finals, especially after we lost to Quinte (in the OMHA wild card game), I don’t think anybody would have thought that.”
Peterborough defenceman Brett Robertson said they need to return to what worked for them the first three games this week.
“As long as we keep working and do what has made us successful the past couple of days we’ll be good,” Robertson said.
“It does hurt the confidence a bit but I think our coaches dealt with it well. They said, ‘It happens.’ We knew we weren’t going to come to this tournament and win every game like we had been. We knew we were going to have a burp.
“We just have to keep working and stay positive. That’s the big thing and that’s how we’re going to deal with it. We still have a good chance to make it into the quarter-finals.”
Donato said the team didn’t execute their game plan in the first five minutes and it got them in a hole.
“That team made us pay,” he said.
“When you get behind the eight ball like that it’s hard to catch up. It’s a snowball effect. We played some OK minutes as the game proceeded but it’s hard when you’re down 5-1.”