Colts gain ground on fading Petes with win
Ninth-place Colts now within 5 points after 8 losses in 11 games
The downward slide of the Peterborough Petes continued against a team trying to catch them on Thursday night.
The Petes hold on an OHL Eastern Conference playoff spot got a little less firm in a 4-2 loss to the Barrie Colts before 2,794 fans at the Memorial Centre.
The Colts, who sit in ninth place, closed to within five points of the Petes with 14 regular season games left for each team. The Petes, losers of eight of their last 11 games, also slipped below the .500 mark for the first time this season at 25-26-1-2. The Colts snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 22-28-3-1.
The Petes are two points behind their next opponent, the Hamilton Bulldogs, who they visit on Saturday night. The
Petes host the Niagara IceDogs at 2 p.m. on Family Day Monday.
Barrie’s Ben Hawerchuk was the best player on the ice scoring once and adding two assists for the Colts while highly-ranked NHL draft prospect Ryan Suzuki picked up two assists.
Hunter Jones stopped Hawerchuk on the game’s first quality scoring opportunity but the Petes grabbed the lead at 13:10. Ryan Merkley led a two-on-one rush and took a shot that Colts goalie Kai Edmonds got a piece of but captain Zach Gallant shovelled the loose puck over the goal-line.
Hawerchuk, the son of Colts coach and NHL Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, tied it 2:16 later. Ryan Suzuki’s pass deflected to Hawerchuk who buried his 20th goal of the season.
Barrie grabbed the lead 2:01 later when Hawerchuk fired a low shot on net that Jones stopped and Jason Wilms tucked the rebound five-hole.
The Petes were unable to take advantage of two power plays early in the second . The closes they came was a Merkley blast from the point off the crossbar.
The Colts had just two shots in the period when they went to the power play at 14:47. It took 15 seconds for Hawerchuk to onetime Nathan Allensen’s pass for a 3-1 lead. The Petes had a strong bounceback shift with Cameron Butler drilling a shot off the goalpost. For a fourth consecutive game the Petes headed to the third period trailing 3-1.
The previous three games the Petes came back to tie the game but this time Barrie defenceman Jack York fired a point shot that redirected past Jones 5:17 into the third for a 4-1 lead.
The Petes got some life off a power-play goal with 3:02 left in regulation time. Butler hammered Semyon Der-Arguchintsev’s drop pass over the glove of Edmonds.
Gallant missed an open net in a flurry in the last minute with Jones pulled for an extra attacker. Nick Robertson also blocked a Barrie shot toward the empty Petes net 30 seconds earlier.
NOTES: Michael Little was a
healthy scratch a day after his penalty late in the third period cost the Petes the winning goal against the Oshawa Generals. Petes GM Mike Oke said “coaches’ decision” was the reason for
sitting out. It also allowed the Petes to get Shawn Spearing back in the lineup after missing nearly three weeks with a concussion…. The three stars were 1. Ben Hawerchuk (B); 2. Kai
Edmonds (B); 3. Zach Gallant (P).… The hardest working Petes was Shawn Spearing.