Petes look for sweep tonight
Petes defencemen will have heavier workloads with Matt Timms out of lineup nursing injury
The Peterborough Petes could really benefit from closing out the Niagara IceDogs as soon as possible.
That will be the goal when they attempt to sweep their OHL Eastern Conference quarter-final at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Meridian Centre.
The Petes have ruled out Matt Timms for Game 4 but got news Wednesday that his injury suffered in Game 3 “may not be as bad as it looked,” said Petes’ GM Mike Oke. Timms left the ice clutching his shoulder after falling head-first into the boards in the first period. The Petes are not releasing a lot of details about his injury but Oke said they consider Timms day-to-day at this point.
The Petes coaching staff went to four defencemen for their overtime period Tuesday with Matt Spencer, Brandon Prophet, Kyle Jenkins and Alex Black getting a heavy workload.
“Matt is a crucial part of our defensive lineup,” said Spencer, of Timms. “Not just five-on-five but on special teams as well. Guys are really going to have to step up and for (Game 3) they did. I’m hoping that’s going to continue because we’re not quite sure how long he’s going to be out.”
Petes coach Jody Hull said their 4-3 win Tuesday was a big swing to go up 3-0 versus being up 2-1.
“We talked to our players about that, that this was going to be (Niagara’s) game to have a lot of push and they were going to be coming,” Hull said. “They play well in this building. They didn’t disappoint in how they came out or played. It was exactly what we expected from them.”
Spencer said the players understood what a win Tuesday meant.
“In a series like this where it seems NIagara keeps putting more pressure on, it’s very important,” Spencer said. “We knew it would be a tough game coming into their barn. We knew we’d have to battle for 60 minutes and it turned out to be a little longer than that.”
Spencer said the players even talked during Game 3 about the importance of trying to keep the series short.
“That was something we stressed between periods. The work we put in now will be a lot better than having to play a couple of more games. If we think we’re fatigued now, it can only get worse if we let up,” Spencer said.
“Every coach in every series wants to win four straight,” said Hull. “You give your team a lot of rest. We’ve got some guys who have played some quality minutes for us and are a little banged up. That being said, we have to go out and make sure we’re doing the right things and playing the right way.”
They know there is no quit in this IceDogs team.
“We can’t take things lightly because they’re going to be fighting for their season and for some of them it could be the last time they play an OHL game,” Spencer said.
The Petes are getting contributions from throughout the lineup but Steve Lorentz stepped up with two big goals in the second period Tuesday to rally them from a 3-1 deficit to 3-3. He has four goals in the series.
“Steve has been our catalyst a lot this year and it was no different (Tuesday),” Hull said. “He’s skating well, moving the puck and is getting some good opportunities.”