Little wins within a loss for Peewee Petes
Major Bantam Petes, Minor Bantam Petes open Boston Pizza Icefest tourney with wins
The opening game of the Boston Pizza Icefest AAA Tournament was a microcosm of the Peterborough Billy Smith Sells Major Peewee Petes season, so far.
The Petes worked hard but struggled to capitalize on chances in a 3-0 loss to the North Central Predators at the Evinrude Centre Thursday afternoon.
The 48-team tournament features major peewee, minor bantam and major bantam divisions with three Peterborough Minor Hockey Council AAA Petes teams. It runs Thursday through Sunday at four arenas in Peterborough and Norwood. All three host teams will play all their pool games at the Evinrude Centre’s atom pad.
The major peewee Petes were the first PMHC team to play and head coach Dave Stewart told his boys he couldn’t fault their effort.
“We’re having a tough start. We only have four points in our first nine games,” Stewart said. “We’re having a tough time scoring. We’re losing games 3-1, 2-1, 5-2. We’re in games and the kids are working hard.
“I just said to them after that game we had chances to score. Pucks are bouncing around in front of the net. I’m a firm believer in the hockey gods and if we can clean up the little mistakes in our zone, we’ll get rewarded In their zone. They’re a hard working group of kids who are all ready and willing to learn.”
Stewart said he’s being patient with the group.
“When you have a season where you aren’t winning a bunch to start the year I don’t want the kids to get down,” he said.
“The coaching staff pushes them but they’re also 12-year-old boys. I’ve coached this age group before and their confidence is a big thing. I’m just asking them to play the game we want them to play and see what happens. There are little wins within the games. We had some kids blocking shots, kids making nice breakout plays. We just want to take little things and improve on them.”
Petes captain Ethan Toms said if they keep working had they’ll get rewarded.
“We felt pretty good about our effort but we’re obviously not too happy about the outcome,” Toms said.
“We’re trying to get pucks to the net and get good movement around the offensive zone. We’re working hard and trying to play good defensive hockey. We’re trying to keep positive.”
“These tournaments are nice to win,” Stewart said, “but we want to grow and learn and improve. That’s exactly what our mindset is going in. This can be a good refresher, a kind of training camp, for the rest of our season.”
Stewart’s hockey gods statement was prophetic for the peewee Petes second game. The offence came to life in a 5-1 win over the Timmins North Stars. They continue pool play Friday at 12:30 p.m. against Sudbury’s Nickel City Sons and 5:30 p.m. versus the Brampton 45’s.
The BP Peterborough Major Bantam Petes kicked off their tournament with a 4-3 win over the Brampton 45’s. They also played Ottawa Myers on Thursday night. A score was unavailable at press time. On Friday, they face the Ontario Hockey Academy Mavericks at 11 a.m. and Guelph Gryphons at 8:30 p.m.
The Ben Smith Sells Minor Bantam Petes beat the North York Rangers 6-1 in their first game. Their second game is at 9:30 a.m. Friday against Nickel City Sons. They also face the Southern Tier Admirals at 4 p.m.
Pool play wraps up Saturday morning. Finals is all three divisions will be played at the Evinrude Centre on Sunday at 1, 3 and 5 p.m.