Nontraditional beasts in the East
Despite winning 40 games, the Petes are not the typical conference leaders
They’re not your traditional conference leader in major junior hockey.
The Peterborough Petes haven’t scored a ton more goals than they’ve allowed. Neither of their special teams are in the top halfdozen in the league.
An 18-year-old defenceman — Matthew Timms — has led them in points for much of the season.
And though they have won 40 games for the first time in 11 years, they are well aware that total would put them in sixth place if they happened to operate out of the superpowerful Western Conference this year. But, you know what? It doesn’t bother them. Plus, they’ve beaten a lot of those clubs recently.
“There’s a lot of talk about how the West is superior to the East,” Petes GM Mike Oke said. “The divisions are determined by geography and we can’t control that. We battle hard to finish as high as we can. But when you play some of those teams that may get a little more notoriety and have some success, it’s nice for the players to say we can compete with any team in the league on any given night and the fans sit up and take notice.
“It’s true some teams in the West get a little more publicity and they are good teams — but we think we have some good teams in the East, as well.”
Last year, Niagara played the role of sleeping Ice-Dogs, finishing fourth and then rolling to the league final. After the Petes’ traditional rival Oshawa decided to sell off their top players despite leading the Eastern Conference, most are banking on a Peterborough-Mississauga third-round matchup.
That might not sound so jazzy given the Steelheads rolled the Petes 10-1 three weeks ago, but they picked themselves up, crushed the Generals and put some more distance between them and their pursuers in this final week of regular play.
“In the past couple of years, it seems like we’ve been in a battle for that last playoff spot,” Oke said, “and now we’re in a battle for first overall in the conference. It’s been a long process and we’ve obviously had some down years, but the past three or four, we’ve looked to improve and it’s an exciting time for the organization.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been here.”
The biggest victory, of course, came at the board level where the team convinced the city to restructure its facility agreement, opening up over $300,000 per season to help the Petes from going broke. Back in the days when junior hockey was largely a mom-and-pop entity, they were a franchise force.
Now, you need to generate serious revenue to keep up with some of the OHL’s juggernauts. That, or surround yourself with quality people.
“We brought in Brandon Prophet (overage d-man from Barrie, promptly named captain) and he’s been terrific,” Oke said. “You have Tyler Rollo, Kyle Jenkins, Steve Lorentz, Matt Spencer and Logan DeNoble as the leadership group, they’ve really embraced all the players, first-year or fifth.
“It’s a good atmosphere here.”
And it may be sustained beyond this spring.
The most important part of this Petes resurgence will be staying competitive and not lapsing back into scraping for that eighth seed.
Their moves at the deadline reflected it. They acquired centre Chris Paquette, who is still 18, from Niagara for a goaltending prospect and a package that included five high draft picks.
Leafs property Nikita Korostelev and Alex Black, brought in from Sarnia, are eligible to return as overagers, and the same goes for DeNoble, the team’s leading goal-getter.
Goalie Dylan Wells has another junior season in him, too.
“We feel like we have a real strong core returning,” Oke said. “We like our young group breaking into the league and they’re getting some valuable experience this year. Sometimes, I’ve been criticized locally for it, but we’re always looking at when we make a move, I want to ensure we help ourselves, not only immediately, but also moving forward beyond this year.
“If you’re going to acquire a player with some eligibility left, you have to pay a premium and I was willing to pay it (in the Paquette deal) because we think very highly of him and he’ll be a real key player for us (next year).”
So, the Petes will take their best shot now, and remain in the mix in a year’s time.
Maybe, by some miracle then, half the teams in the West won’t have at least 40 wins.
In the past couple of years, it seems like we’ve been in a battle for that last playoff spot. And now we’re in a battle for first overall in the conference. ” Petes GM Mike Oke