Hunter Jones stones the Gens in road win
Badly outshot Petes come home with two points to stay tied with Ottawa for first place
OSHAWA – The Peterborough Petes can thank Hunter Jones for Friday night’s win.
Jones picked up his OHL leading seventh win of the season with 45 saves in a 2-1 win over the Generals before 4,901 fans at the Tribute Communities Centre.
The Petes improved to an Eastern Conference 7-2 on the season including 3-1 on the road while Oshawa dipped to 3-4-0.
Declan Chisholm had the winning goal and an assist to lead the Petes.
It was the first of eight meetings between the Highway 115 rivals and first of four games in a three-week span. Oshawa will visit the Petes on Thursday.
The Petes got off to a decent start with Brady Hinz going to the front of the net to redirect Declan Chisholm’s shot past goalie Kyle Keyser 2:22 into the game. It was Hinz’s fifth goal in nine games after scoring five goals in 28 games last season after being acquired from the Sarnia Sting in the Jonathan Ang trade in January.
The Generals tied it 6:30 later when Nando Eggenberger retrieved the puck in the Petes corner and put a backhand pass onto the stick of Montreal Canadiens draft pick Allan McShane who snapped it past goalie Hunter Jones. Jones stopped 15 shots to keep the game tied after 20 minutes.
Just past the midway mark of the second period Oshawa’s Serren Noel got in behind the Petes’ defence for a partial breakaway but he was turned aside by Jones who entered the game leading all OHL goalies with six wins.
The Petes came close with a little more than four minutes left in the second when Liam Kirk feathered a pass to Matt McNamara who jumped into the rush but Keyser threw out his blocker to make the save.
The Petes took the lead on a power play on the next shift when Semyon Der-Arguchintsev dropped a backhand pass to the point where Chisholm drilled it home for his first goal of the season to go along with six assists. The Petes were trailing 30-16 on the shot clock at the time.
Petes defender Cole Fraser rocked Generals captain Jack Studnicka with a thunderous open-ice hit late in the middle period.
Jones came up with another big save with 12:11 left in the third stopping Eggenberger’s blast off a McShane drop pass. Jones almost got caught out of his net trying to retrieve his stick when an Oshawa shot deflected inches wide of an open net.
The Generals thought they’d tied it on a power play at 9:04 when Nick Wong drilled a shot past Jones. The goal was disallowed after video review showed the play was off-side.
Jones topped Tye Tullio pointblank with three minutes left to preserve the lead.
Studnicka had a goal disallowed in the final 90 seconds when the whistle was blown before it entered the net.
NOTES: The Petes host defected first-round draft pick Will Cuylle and the Windsor Spitfires 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the PMC. Prior to the game the Petes will honour the 1979 team which brought Peterborough its only Memorial Cup championship to date… About 100 fans turned up at the PMC Pub & Grill for a Petesa Party Friday that featured a Q&A with members of the 1979 Petes and a viewing party of the Petes game in Oshawa… The hardest working Pete was Cole Fraser.
Hayton named captain
Peterborough native Barrett Hayton was named the captain of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Friday, with Morgan Frost, Mac Hollowell and Jordan Sambrook as alternate captains.
Hayton, 18, is in his third season with the Greyhounds after becoming the Arizona Coyotes first round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft.
The Peterborough minor hockey product, who was just returned to the Hounds two days ago, was originally their first round selection (ninth overall) in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection, and is coming off a 60-point (21G, 39A) season one year ago.