Petes come unglued
Lopsided loss Sunday in Mississauga followed Saturday OT win over Barrie
Peterborough Petes were a Jekyll and Hyde act on the weekend.
On Saturday night they beat the Barrie Colts in a thrilling 5-4 overtime battle for first place in the OHL’s Eastern Conference before 3,157 fans at the Memorial Centre.
They were led by Jonathan Ang’s four point performance including setting up Chris Paquette’s overtime winner. It gave Ang 11 points in three games moving him to seventh in OHL scoring.
On Sunday, the Petes were pulverized 9-2 by the Mississauga Steelheads while being outshot 62-15beforeamostlyemptyHershey Centre. The Petes lost their composure with Ang tossed for a cross checking match penalty which will likely lead to a suspension. It came when Mississauga scored with 7.7 seconds left in the second period to go up 6-2 and gives Ang the second most penalty minutes in the league. Nikita Korostelev, who has 11 points in four games, took a fourminute spearing penalty and Cole Fraser took a five-minute penalty for jumping Michael Little who earlier in the game checked Petes’ rookie Nick Robertson in the head.
While Mississauga entered the game last in the conference, they are the east’s hottest team with five wins and a shootout loss in their last six games. Albert Michnac scored his second hat trick in as many days to lead Mississauga who jumped to a 4-1 lead with three goals 46 seconds apart late in the first period. A steady parade of Petes’ penalties led to five power play goals on 12 Steelheads’ chances. Petes’ rookie goalie Hunter Jones didn’t get much support.
Petes’ coach Jody Hull said he thought his team would carry the momentum of the Barrie win into Mississaugabuthesaidtheyhadeven bigger reasons to be motivated.
“We were playing a team that knocked us out of the Eastern Conference last year,” said Hull, “and a team playing their third game in three nights and we looked like we had no interest in playing the game.”
The Petes played Sunday short four injured veteran forwards including Logan DeNoble, Adam Timleck, Zach Gallant and Nick Isaacson. Hull said it’s too early to know if any will be back for their next game Friday in Kingston and it’s likely Ang will be out.
“Regardless of who is in your lineup when the compete level is not there and the execution it’s not acceptable. That’s the most important thing we’re looking at here. It was an opportunity for other guys and our veterans to carry the workload. We keep shooting ourselves in our own foot and it started with discipline today,” he said.
Paquette scored a short-handed goal and John Parker-Jones tipped in his second goal of the season. Cole Schwindt, Nicholas Canade, Jacob Cascagnette, Jacob Moverare, Brendan Harrogate and Little also scored for Mississauga.
On Saturday, Ang set up Paquette’s winner 2:20 into overtime from behind the Colts’ net after Barrie’s Kade Landry tied the game with 1:15 left in the third period and goalie Leo Lazarev pulled for an extra attacker. Landry’s shot tipped off Ang’s stick past Dylan Wells.
Paquette’s winner was his second goal of the night. Ang had two goals, one on a penalty shot, and two assists. Korostelev had two points including his 100th OHL goal.
It was a seesaw battle with both teams holding the lead twice in regulation time.
“That was huge,” Ang said, on Saturday. “to bounce back from Thursday against Sarnia (a 7-5 loss) who are arguably the best team in the CHL. We were up and we were down and tied, it was all over the place. I’m just glad we got this one.” Justin Murray, Joey Keane and Jayden Peca also scored for Barrie.