Petes fall to Owen Sound Attack’s power play
Fifth loss in six games as Petes slip 9-7 on the season
OWEN SOUND – The Peterborough Petes lost the special teams battle Saturday night.
The Owen Sound Attack outscored the Petes 3-0 on the power play – the margin of victory in a 5-2 game – before 3,116 fans at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
Nick Suzuki’s back-to-back power play goals in the second period, after a first period injury scare, and two third period goals 38 seconds apart proved the Petes’ undoing. The Attack were three-for-four on the power play and the Petes zero-for-two to go zero-for-18 in their past six games.
It was the Petes fifth loss in six games as they slipped to 9-7 while Owen Sound won its fourth in a row.
Petes assistant coach Derrick Walser said the coaches didn’t like some of the penalties they took at poor times.
“Their high-end guy Suzuki scored on bad penalties,” said Walser.
Within a goal in the third the Petes not only took a penalty to negate a power play, they took another that led to Owen Sound’s insurance goal.
“We had an opportunity to go on the power play and retaliated to go four-on-four,” said Walser. “That was an opportunity we wasted. You have to have that discipline.”
Up to those moments the Petes were right there with rookie Tye Austin, in his second OHL start, doing what he had to when needed.
“Five-on-five we were good and Tye was playing well and giving us a chance to win in Owen Sound which isn’t an easy building,” said Walser. “With nine minutes left it was 3-2 and we were getting opportunities and starting to push the pace and we took penalties again.”
Walser saw some signs of life from the Petes’ power play.
“We had some chances and got some life from it. It’s a work in progress,” he said.
The Petes had chances to take the lead before Owen Sound
scored the lone goal of the first period.
Nick Isaacson drilled a shot off the crossbar and Nick Robertson was robbed by goalie Mack Guzda on back-to-back toe saves.
Less than a minute after Robertson’s chance he tailed to clear the puck in his own end and Cade Robinson set up rookie Griffin Wilson who snapped his second OHL goal.
The Petes tied it 3:08 into the second when Owen Sound turned the puck over and it came to Rob-
ertson, who drilled it over the pad of Guzda below his glove.
The Petes continued to press and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev hit the crossbar.
The Attack got a scare in the first when Suzuki suffered a cut to his leg that forced officials to stop the game so he could get to the dressing room. Suzuki returned in the second and scored on a power play at 13:23 to give Owen Sound a 2-1 lead. Austin stopped Suzuki on a point-blank chance but the rebound was moved around until Suzuki onetimed Brady Lyle’s cross-ice pass. Suzuki struck again on the man-advantage 4:41 later from an identical spot on the ice converting Kevin Hancock’s feed top shelf.
After taking the last penalty, Adam Timleck got redemption 5:55 into the third. He blocked a shot at his own blue-line and raced down the ice on a two-onone where he blew a shot over Guzda’s glove.
Austin kept the Petes within a goal on the next shift stopping a difficult deflection off Trent Bourque’s shot for his strongest of 37 saves.
Another power play was the dagger in the Petes’ back. Aidan Dudas finished off a series of passes at 13:37. Jackson Doherty added another 38 seconds later converting Robinson’s pass.
The Petes are off until Thursday when they host the Oshawa Generals at the PMC on Plaid Night for the United Way.
NOTES: The Petes reassigned forward Dustin Hutton to the OJHL’s Toronto Jr. Canadiens on Saturday to get him playing time. He had zero points in four games with the Petes. He was their top pick in the 2018 OHL U18 draft. “We wish Dustin luck with the Jr. A Canadiens where we will continue to monitor his development,” said Petes’ GM Mike Oke. Shawn Spearing was the lone healthy scratch for the Petes on Saturday as they iced the same lineup as Thursday’s 5-2 win over Sudbury… The three stars were 1. Nick Suzuki (O); 2. Kevin Hancock (O); 3, Mack Guzda (O)