Petes lose to Bulldogs at PMC
Hamilton breaks free from second-period tie
Head coach Rob Wilson feels like the Peterborough Petes fumbled away four points they deserved this week.
The Petes outshot their opponents 82-61 in two games at the Memorial Centre Tuesday and Saturday but lost 5-3 first to the Kitchener Rangers and then 3-1 to the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Instead of a 13-7 record the Petes are 11-9. It’s the difference between being in third place in the OHL’s Eastern Conference instead of their current sixth place. The Petes led Hamilton 1-0 heading into the third period and goalie Hunter Jones did his part stopping 33 shots.
“We’re a little bit snake-bitten as far as scoring goals goes,” said Wilson. “We got close to 90 shots for the last two games and can’t seem to find the back of the net. It’s four points lost because I thought we probably should have had both wins.”
Hamilton goalie Zachary Roy stopped Nick Isaacson and Austin Osmanski on second period breakaways. Adam Timleck also hit a goal post.
“We need to capitalize,” said Wilson. “It’s frustrating because we very easily have had two home wins this week and we’d be feeling really good about ourselves. Now we have two home losses and we have to make these games up and put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to maybe get some points in places we weren’t counting on.”
Wilson said his team played well enough that he’s “not concerned. I’m more disappointed.”
The Petes took a lead with 4:20 remaining in the second period when Timleck converted Isaacson’s set-up.
Avery Hayes tied the game on a two-on-zero breakaway 1:53 into the third period. Brandon Saigeon tallied again 1:24 later to leapfrog the Bulldogs into the lead. Nicolas Mattinen clinched it with an empty-net marker at 19:44.
Wilson said the first two goals came off mistakes the team should be eliminating from its game nearly one-third into the season. The odd-man rushes are about game management.
“You can’t give up a two-onzero in the third period when you are up 1-0,” he said. “We talked about it going into the period that 1-0 is as good as winning 4-3. It makes no difference. You have to learn to win these games and good teams do. We talked about not allowing teams to get in behind us and things like that when you’re winning 1-0. I’m a little frustrated by that and the guys know it but there were also a lot of positives to be taken.”
The Petes’ next action is 7:05 p.m. Thursday when they host the Owen Sound Attack.
NOTES: Nick Robertson missed Saturday’s game with a flare-up of a wrist injury which sidelined him for several weeks earlier this season, said Petes’ head coach Rob Wilson. Cole Fraser was out with a lower body injury but he should return Thursday, said Wilson. Cameron Butler was still away at the World U17 Hockey Challenge. His team, Team Canada White, didn’t make the playoff round. On the positive side, John Parker-Jones returned to the lineup after missing 17 games with a broken finger… Peterborough minor hockey grad Will Cranley’s Team Canada Red placed fourth at the World U17 Hockey Challenge in New Brunswick after losing 4-3 to Sweden in the bronze medal game. ..The three stars were 1. Zachary Roy (H); 2. Hunter Jones (P); 3, Brandon Saigeon (H)… Hardest working Pete was Brady Hinz.