Petes outshoot Rangers, but lose game 5-3
Peterborough power play ends 0-26 drought
The best team doesn’t always win.
The Peterborough Petes outshot the Kitchener Rangers 43-25 but it was the visitors who took home a 5-3 win before 2,236 fans at the Memorial Centre on Tuesday night.
The Rangers (8-8-2) snapped a three-game losing streak while handing the Petes (11-8-0) their first loss in three games.
The Petes were victims of some bad bounces and bad luck around the Rangers’ net. They were outscored 3-2 in a period where they had 18 more shots than their opponents.
The Rangers opened the scoring on the game’s first power play at 5:35. The Rangers moved the puck around effectively until Riley Damiani found Jonathan Yantsis on the back-door to tap in his 13th goal of the season.
The Petes power play, ranked 19th in the OHL, finally ended a zero-for-26 drought to tie it with 1:11 left in the first period. Erik Cermak deflected Chris Paquette’s point shot past goalie Luke Richardson with Liam Kirk also assisting.
It was the Petes first goal with the man-advantage since Oct. 13 against Windsor, a stretch of eight games without a power play tally.
The Petes outshot Kitchener 23-5 in the second period but were outscored 3-2.
Cermak scored again 2:53 into the second to put the Petes in front 2-1. Fellow rookie Jake Partridge found Cermak with a pass driving to the net and Richardson stopped the original shot but Cermak followed up on his own rebound.
The power play giveth but it also took away for the Petes as Kitchener got a pair of goals 4:51 apart when the Petes got caught on odd-man rushes as power plays expired.
Kitchener had a three-on-one break which eventually led to Chase Campbell redirecting Yantsis’ shot in off Hunter Jones’ glove at 6:07.
A missed shot on another Petes’ power play led to the puck scooting around the boards to Justin MacPherson as he came out of the penalty box to score on a breakaway.
The Petes power play drew them even again when Paquette stepped into a shot that beat Richardson at 16:20. Kitchener regained the lead just as one of their power plays expired 2:38 later as Campbell stuffed in a rebound for his second of the night.
Nick Robertson put a shot through Richardson’s legs on a two-on-one break with five minutes left but the puck rolled wide of the far post. It’s the closest they got to tying it.
Greg Meireles ended the night with an empty-net goal at 19:32.
The Petes will host the Hamilton Bulldogs 7:05 p.m. Saturday.
NOTES: The three stars were 1. Erik Cermak (P); 2. Luke Richardson (K); 3, Chase Campbell (K)… Hardest working Pete was Matt McNamara… Peterborough native Will Cranley, a rookie with the Ottawa 67’s, stopped 30 shots to help Team Canada Red beat Sweden 4-3 in overtime at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in New Brunswick on Monday. Petes’ rookie Cameron Butler was held off the scoresheet in Team Canada White’s opening game 5-2 win over the USA.