Road win moves Petes into first
4-1 victory in North Bay followed Saturday loss to Bulldogs
NORTH BAY – Peterborough Petes have plenty to be thankful for early in the 2018-19 OHL season.
A 4-1 Thanksgiving Monday road win over the North Bay Battalion moved the Petes atop the East Division, and into second in the conference, with a 5-2 record.
Two days after a 3-2 loss in Hamilton to the Bulldogs, the Petes built a 2-0 first period lead and controlled the Battalion who are without head coach/GM Stan Butler on a medical leave of absence.
“We’re really happy,” said Petes’ head coach Rob Wilson. “Five-and-two is a great start. We’re learning from our mistakes. I was a little disappointed, and the guys knew it, after the game in Hamilton. I don’t hide my feelings, I’m pretty open, and I wasn’t happy with how we played six or seven minutes (Saturday). It cost us a big road win. Today we played that complete road game we need to play to win.
“We did a very good job of playing behind the puck and not allowing them to get in behind us.”
Northern Ontario boy Chad Denault opened the scoring 10:57 into the game. He went to the net to cash in Nick Isaacson’s pass off Matt McNamara’s rebound. The Petes went up by two on a power play 3:06 later when Pavel Gogolev spun and fired a sharp-angle shot over goalie Christian Propp’s shoulder. Rookie Erik Cermak picked up his first OHL point with an assist.
The Petes went up by three 70 seconds into the second. Isaacson kept the puck in at the blue-line and fed Adam Timleck who snapped his first goal of the season between Propp’s legs.
Hunter Jones, making his seventh straight start in the Petes’ goal, stopped Patrick Brown on a breakaway but a penalty on the play led to North Bay’s first goal eight seconds into the power play. Brad Chenier tipped David Maier’s point shot at 2:43.
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev notched his first goal since returning from Toronto Maple Leafs camp 31 seconds into the third. He found a lane to the net to convert Gogolev’s centering pass.
On Saturday, the game was scoreless for 31:34 until Hamilton exploded for three goals 6:04 apart.
“At times we were the better team and were in control of the game,” Wilson said. “We had a couple of shifts that lasted too long and it hurt us.
“We threw away the two points in that stretch.”
On the first goal, Hamilton created a neutral zone turnover and rookie Avery Hayes dropped to one knee to snipe Brandon Saigeon’s pass by Jones. Hamilton doubled the lead 4:30 later with newly-acquired Peterborough native Josh Wainman picking up his first point with Hamilton. Wainman fired a point shot Tim Fleischer tipped home.
Saigeon tallied 10 seconds into a power play finishing Matthew Strome’s goalmouth pass making it 3-0.
The Petes got on the board 37 seconds into the third. Brady Hinz was stopped by Nick Donofrio on a breakaway but an ensuing flurry by the Petes was finished by McNamara pinching in from the point to score his first goal of the season. Rookie Cameron Butler drew the Petes within 3-2 on his third goal in six games depositing Declan Chisholm’s rebound.
The Petes host the Erie Otters 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
NOTES: Three stars Saturday were 1. Brandon Saigeon (H); 2. Arthur Kallyev (H); 3. Avery Hayes (H) and Monday were: 1. Pavel Gogolev (P); 2. Nick Isaacson (P); 3, Christian Propp (N)… Hardest working Pete on Saturday was Matt McNamara and Erik Cermak on Monday… After icing the same lineup Saturday as Thursday, the Petes made two changes Monday. Dustin Hutton and Cameron Supryka were in and Jacob Partridge and Shawn Spearing out.