Petes extend winning streak to four games
Petes shut down North Bay’s league leading power play
The Peterborough Petes shut down the OHL’s top power play and second leading scorer on Thursday night.
Erik Cermak had a goal and assist to power the Petes to a fourth consecutive win beating the North Bay Battalion 4-1 before 2,456 fans on Girls Hockey Night at the Memorial Centre.
The Petes (16-11-0) moved into a three-way tie with the Oshawa Generals and Niagara IceDogs for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Mississauga Steelheads are two points behind the three teams after losing 4-2 to the Barrie Colts on Thursday night in Barrie.
The Petes kept the league’s second-leading scorer Justin Brazeau off the scoresheet. The Petes’ third best penalty kill also stopped the Battalion’s topranked power play on both its opportunities.
The Petes took a two-goal lead late in the first period and never looked back. They head north on Friday to visit the Sudbury Wolves at 7 p.m. in their only other game this weekend.
Hunter Jones, who made 30 saves for the win, guided the Petes through some shaky moments in the first period until Peterborough struck with two goals 28 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead.
The Petes were outshot 14-10 in the period getting hemmed in their zone a couple of times after failing to clear the puck.
The Petes might have had the better quality of chances, though. Liam Kirk, coming off a five-goal weekend, was robbed in the slot by a kick save 6:30 into the game by Christian Propp on a set-up by Cameron Butler.
The Petes opened the scoring at 18:23 when Cole Fraser’s long arching pass was picked up by Brady Hinz who held his ground on a drive to the net to deke Propp to the backhand.
The first goal hadn’t even been announced by Gord Gibb when Semyon Der-Arguchintsev made it 2-0. He went to the net to finish off a three-way passing play from Adam Timleck and Nick Robertson putting the shot over Propp’s glove.
North Bay cut the lead in half on an unassisted effort by Adam McMaster 5:27 into the second period. He picked off a pass by Pavel Gogolev in the Battalion end meant for John Parker-Jones at the point. He chipped it past the defender for a two-on-one and used his teammate as a decoy to snap a short-side shot over Jones’ shoulder.
Butler restored the two-goal margin 6:20 later. Erik Cermak found Butler going to the net where he squeezed a shot through Propp.
North Bay’s Braden Henderson ripped a shot off the goal post that fell in behind Jones but nev- er crossed the line.
Chris Paquette drilled a shot off the North Bay crossbar on the opening shift of the third period.
Cermak added insurance 15:24 into the third going to the net to cash in Fraser’s rebound.
NOTES: Next Thursday’s home game against the Hamilton Bulldogs will be the Petes annual Teddy Bear Toss…. Pavel Gogolev returned to the lineup Thursday after missing two games to illness last weekend. John Parker-Jones also returned after sitting out last weekend. Cameron Supryka was ill on Thursday night while Jacob Partridge and Shawn Spearing were healthy scratches…. The Oshawa Generals acquired forward Anthony Salinitri from the Sarnia Sting on Thursday in exchange for two second-round draft picks and a fourth-round pick. Salinitri
had 14 goals and 28 points in 25 games for Sarnia this season.… The three stars were 1. Erik Cermak (P); 2. Hunter Jones (P); 3. Adam McMaster (N)….
The hardest working Pete was Cameron Butler.