ICEFEST AAA TOURNEY UNDERWAY
Goalie Hunter Jones makes 40 saves to keep them in the game but the Petes power play continues to be ineffective
The Peterborough Petes just didn’t have it on Thursday night.
The Oshawa Generals evened the season series between the two clubs with a more convincing win than the 4-1 score might indicate before 2,757 spectators at the Memorial Centre.
The Petes first loss in five games cost them first place in the overall and Eastern Conference standings. The Ottawa 67’s edged the Niagara IceDogs 3-2 to move two points ahead of the Petes who hold one game in hand.
The Petes struggled to generate much offensively and weren’t sharp on the power play where they gave up a short-handed goal.
Oshawa snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 4-4-1 while the Petes dipped to 8-3-0.
The Petes are back in action at 7 p.m. Friday as they visit the Mississauga Steelheads. Mississauga is just one point behind the Petes after beating North Bay Battalion 4-3 on Thursday. The Petes and Generals meet again for the third time in nine days at 6:05 p.m. Sunday at the Tribute Communities Centre.
The Petes came close to scoring on the opening shift but Oshawa had more quality opportunities while outshooting the Petes 17-7 in a scoreless first period.
Adam Timleck had the Petes two best chances in the opening four minutes. Petes goalie Hunter Jones had to be sharp to make a glove save off Danil Antropov. He made a toe save off Kyle MacLean on a two-on-one shorthanded feed from Jack Studnicka.
Jones also robbed Nando Eggenberger point blank off Serren Noel’s pass in the dying seconds of the period.
Oshawa opened the scoring with a short-handed goal 6:40 into the second. Semyon Der-Arguchintsev coughed up the puck to Studnicka whose pass to Eric Henderson was ripped past Jones.
Oshawa went up by two at 10:47 when Eggenberger fished the puck out of a scramble and set up Danyk Drouin’s first OHL goal.
The Petes continued to struggle on the power play as they coughed up a short-handed breakaway to Studnicka but Jones bailed his team out keeping the deficit at two after 40 minutes.
Henderson swatted a rebound out of mid-air to make it a threegoal lead 6:29 into the third. Matt Brassard took the original shot from the point hit Noel and bounced up in the air where Henderson knocked it home.
Cole Fraser broke Kyle Keyser’s shutout attempt with 5:44 left floating a point shot through traffic. Der-Arguchintsev won a draw and Pavel Gogolev shovelled the puck to Fraser with the teams playing four-on-four.
Studnicka completed the scoring into an empty net at 17:46
NOTES: Three stars were 1. Eric Henderson (O); 2. Kyle Keyser (O); 3, Cole Fraser (P).… Hardest working Pete was Hunter Jones.… Petes scratches were Dustin Hutton (numbers), Nick Robertson (wrist), John Parker-Jones (finger) and Zach Gallant (high ankle sprain). ParkerJones returned to practice this week in a non-contact jersey. Head coach Rob Wilson said he is still unable to grip a stick with his broken finger and is likely still three weeks from returning…. After recording three points in his first three OHL games, Liam Kirk has not recorded a point in eight games…. Friday night’s game with the Mississauga Steelheads will not be televised on YourTV.