Petes scoring slump continues as they drop a 3-0 decision on the road to the Niagara IceDogs to extend losing streak to four games
Petes have scored just two goals in the last four games after 3-0 road loss to Niagara IceDogs, despite 41 saves by Jones
ST. CATHARINES — The Peterborough Petes offence has dried up.
The Niagara IceDogs blanked the Petes 3-0 handing Peterborough its fourth consecutive loss, off the heels of a four-game winning streak, Wednesday night before 4,687 fans at the Meridian Centre.
After averaging 3.9 goals in their opening 10 games, when the Petes jumped to the top of the OHL standings with an 8-2 record, they’ve now scored two in their past four games.
The IceDogs’ second win in a row improved their record to 7-4-2, moving them into fourth place in the Eastern Conference and bumping the Petes (8-6-0) to fifth.
Both teams, along with the fourth-place Sudbury Wolves, all have 16 points with the Wolves holding two games in hand on Peterborough and Niagara one.
The Petes will look to get off the slide when they host Sudbury at 7:05 p.m. Thursday at the Memorial Centre. They visit the Owen Sound Attack on Saturday night.
It’s the second time in three games the Petes have been shutout including a 3-0 loss to the
Mississauga Steelheads on Friday. The Petes power play is zerofor-13 during their four-game skid.
The IceDogs scored in the first period and added a third period power play goal and empty-net marker.
IceDogs rookie Jonah De Simone’s first OHL goal was the only first period tally by either team. Jake Uberti forced a turnover on the forecheck and fed De Simone who snapped a shot past Hunter Jones making his 13th start in 14 games this season. Uberti picked up his first OHL point on the play.
The Petes had a couple of short-handed chances on a first
period IceDogs power play but couldn’t capitalize.
Jones made a couple of tough saves on Philip Tomasino in the opening 20 minutes. The first was on a partial breakaway and on the second Jones sprawled to take away a Liam Ham rebound from Tomasino at the end of Niagara’s power play.
The teams traded chances in the second period but neither was effective at finishing.
The new line of Semyon DerArguchintsev, Pavel Gogolev and Nick Robertson created some chances on the rush with DerArguchintsev firing a shot over the net on a three-on-one break.
At times Jones held his team in the game stopping Bradey Johnson on a shot and then stretching to get his toe on a Tomasino shot in the final minute of the second period to keep the Petes within a goal. The Petes’ second power play of the game early in the third generated little.
Back-to-back power plays led to Niagara’s second goal. Jones stopped Akil Thomas on a point blank chance but on the next shift Johnson cashed in a second rebound doubling the lead with 8:57 left in the third.
The Petes pressed late but couldn’t solve Stephen Dhillon who made 28 saves for the shutout. Jones stopped 41 shots. Ivan Lodnia added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
NOTES: Petes rookie Cameron Butler will play for Team Canada White at the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Nov. 3 to 10 in Saint John and Quispamsis, N.B., Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday. Peterborough minor hockey grad Will Cranley, a rookie goalie with the Ottawa 67’s, will play for Team Canada Red. Three Canadian teams will face off against the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States.… The Petes’ three straight losses last week saw them slip right out of the Kia CHL Top 10 rankings after debuting at No. 5 last week when they were riding a fourgame winning streak…. Adam Timleck missed his second straight game with an upper body injury. Petes head coach
Rob Wilson described the injury as minor and says Timleck is day-to-day. Also sidelined were
John Parker-Jones (finger),
Zach Gallant (high ankle sprain) and Dustin Hutton (numbers)…. Three stars were 1. Stephen Dillon (N); 2. Jonah de Simone (N); 3. Ben Jones (N)…. Hardest working Pete was Hunter Jones.