Lefebvre hat-trick powers Petes to critical victory over Kingston
Petes pull to within eight points of the Barrie Colts for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot
Cam Gauvreau knows a thing or two about heart and he sees it in his young Peterborough Petes teammates.
The Petes are fighting against their seemingly inevitable elimination from playoff contention, staying mathematically alive with a 5-3 win over the Kingston Frontenacs on Wednesday night.
Chase Lefebvre’s first OHL hat trick and Liam Sztuska’s 42 saves powered the Petes to victory before a 15th sellout of 3,819 fans at the Memorial Centre.
The Petes (20-35-7-1), winners of two straight at home after snapping a franchise high 13 straight losses at the PMC, pulled within eight points of the Barrie Colts for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
The Petes have five regular season games remaining to Barrie’s seven. The Petes will visit Kingston (2931-4-0) Friday night before hosting the North Bay Battalion 7:05 p.m. Saturday.
Gauvreau returned after missing five games with a hand injury to break a 2-2 tie 5:31 into the third period. He snuck in near the hash marks to redirect Ryder McIntyre’s shot past goalie Mason Vaccari.
The hand injury is bad enough Gauvreau might not have played if not for the fact the overage defenceman only had six games left in his OHL career.
“Cam was a warrior for us last year in the playoffs,” said Petes head coach Rob Wilson. “He was probably not feeling his best but wanted to play. He has six games left in the league in the regular season and he wants to play them. He got a big goal and it was nice to see for him. The smile on his face was huge.”
“I should be out for a couple more weeks, but it’s obviously my last year,” Gauvreau said. “I’ve had so much fun in this league my whole time here and I want to end it the way it should be ended.”
Braydon McCallum looked to have clinched the win with an empty-net goal at 18:17, but Kingston kept coming with Gabriel Frasca batting a puck out of the air during a scramble in front of Sztuska just 15 seconds later to make it a one-goal game again. It set the stage for Lefebvre to hit the empty net 18 seconds later to cap his hat trick.
“I’ve been working really hard and to finally get a hat trick is really nice,” Lefebvre said, “and to get the win especially. It’s really big. We had to win this game to have a chance. Now we just have to win every other game.”
The Petes are 3-2-1 in their last six games and watching from the press box before rejoining his team, Gauvreau saw a lot of good traits from the young rebuilding squad.
“I’m seeing a lot of heart,” Gauvreau said. “These last couple of weeks these guys have been playing extra hard, trying their best to win battles and having back pressure back to the net.”
Wilson liked their power play, which accounted for two goals, second-period penalty killing and Sztuska’s play, but said they showed their youth after going up 4-2.
“We got complacent and the game was far from over,” said Wilson. “We were swinging away from the puck. They know and they learned right away and could tell pretty quick I wasn’t happy.”
Kingston went ahead 6:17 into the game when Ethan Miedema took a shot from the corner which rebounded off Sztuska’s pad and Matthew Soto bunted it into the net.
The Petes replied 3:05 later just seven seconds into their first power play. Tommy Purdeller won a puck battle off a scrambled draw and fed Quinton Page, whose one-timer was stopped by Vaccari, but Lefebvre knocked in the rebound. Purdeller has three goals and nine assists for 12 points in his last 10 games.
Kingston replied on its first power play when Jacob Battaglia held the puck until he found an opening and wired a sharp-angle shot home at 15:22.
The Petes drew even with 2:54 left in the second on another power play, as Nico Addy found Lefebvre alone at the far post with a cross-ice pass to shovel home his second of the night. They headed to the third tied despite a 31-17 edge in shots by Kingston. Final shots were 45-24.
‘‘ I’ve had so much fun in this league my whole time here and I want to end it the way it should be ended.
CAM GAUVREAU PETES DEFENCEMAN