Petes made a statement with bounce back win: Jones
After taking their first beating of the season last Saturday the Peterborough Petes got right back on the horse Thursday night.
A few days of practice following the 7-1 drubbing by the Hamilton Bulldogs refocussed the Petes for a 5-2 win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at the PMC.
It improved the club’s record to 4-1 heading to Hamilton on Saturday for a 4 p.m. rematch against the Bulldogs. The Petes are also on the road Thanksgiving on Monday afternoon against the North Bay Battalion.
It was a special night for newly appointed Petes captain Zach Gallant who scored a hat trick in his first game with the C on his jersey. He broke a 2-2 tie with 3:29 left in the third period and added an empty-net goal.
“It was really cool,” Gallant said. “You’re definitely not thinking about (scoring a hat trick) coming in but to have that opportunity was awesome.”
Petes goalie Hunter Jones turned aside 34 shots to earn first star honours against the Soo after being pulled Saturday following five goals against in two periods.
Petes associate coach Andrew Verner said Jones couldn’t be blamed on any of the goals he surrendered against Hamilton, but, Jones was still pleased to come back with a strong effort.
“Saturday our team as a whole didn’t play as well as we wanted to,” Jones said.
“It was pretty important to come back Thursday and make a statement that that’s not how we’re looking to play this year. I feel like it was a great bounce back game for everybody.”
“We had no worries about Hunter bouncing back,” said Verner, “because we didn’t think he was bad. We think he’s one of the best goalies in the league. He’s a draft eligible guy and I’m getting all kinds of calls and requests for video on him. People are talking about him.”
Jones said the team had a fun paint ball outing on Sunday to help forget about the loss before getting back to work at practice on Monday.
“Early in the season when you’re getting to know everybody on the team we’re just trying to bond and we’re already doing a really good job with that,” Jones said.
“It’s important to keep everyone on the same page and doing things co-operatively.”
Pavel Gogolev opened the scoring 36 seconds into the second period with his first goal of the season.
It came with an assist to the hometown square corners. Austin Osmanski’s dump-in took a favourable bounce off the boards out front where Brady Hinz quickly moved it to the far post where Pavel Gogolev tucked it past Matthew Villalta.
“It takes a bit off my shoulders,” Gogolev said.
“The first four games the puck just wasn’t going in. I had chances but Hinzy made a great pass and I just had to finish it. I was really happy and all the stress was just gone.”