The Service Master Restore Minor Peewee AE
Petes came off the Christmas break looking to secure third spot in their
Lakeshore Division. With three games remaining, the Petes knew that two wins
could lock up third and get them in a strong position to start their playoff
run.
The Christmas break didn’t seem to have impacted the Petes when they travelled to Oshawa on Thursday night (January 3) and proceeded to control the gameplay from the opening faceoff onward. The only thing keeping the Petes at bay was a superb performance from the General’s goaltender, who would hold strong until the dying minutes of the second period when Sawyer Spencley would finally find the back of the net in what would be the lone goal of the game. The Petes hard work, coupled with a perfect game from netminder Adam McGinn, led the Petes out of the arena with a 1-0 win and an opportunity to clinch third as they finished up the regular season on the weekend.
The Petes played host to the second place Belleville Bulls on Saturday at the PMC. The Petes looked like they were ready to continue their strong play when Spencley scored on his first shift of the game, but the Bulls responded with three consecutive goals and had the Petes down 3-1 heading to the third. Although the score was not in their favour, everyone in the building could feel the Petes building momentum and it culminated with a pair of third period goals from Matthew Sokolski and Sam Dickey, drawing things even with less than 5 minutes to play. With all the momentum shifted in favour of the Petes, and them pressing to score the go ahead goal, the hometown crowd would be silenced when Belleville managed to escape their zone and convert one of the few scoring chances they had in the closing period. The Petes made a valiant effort to tie things up as they pulled their goalie and attacked hard, but the Bulls managed to hang on for the 4-3 win. Assists throughout the game came from Andrew Wasson (2), Will Mattie, Dickey and Sokolski.
The Petes regular season would come to a conclusion with a Sunday night trip back to Oshawa to face the Generals in a key game for both teams. A Petes win or tie would clinch third place, while Oshawa would need to win to avoid possibly falling to 8th place in the standings. It seemed like the Petes had a bit of a hangover from their Saturday afternoon loss, and Oshawa took advantage of it with a pair of first period goals. The Petes showed a lot of resilience and rather than pack up their bags, they dug in and fought hard to get back into the game. The comeback started with an early 2nd period goal from DJ Crough, but then stalled as they bombarded the General’s goalie with pucks, but couldn’t sneak any past him. That would all change with less than 3 minutes to play when Dickey banged home a great pass from Wasson, taking all the air out of the Oshawa club and their fans. With the Gen’s on their heels, the Petes wouldn’t make the same mistake as the day before and this time were rewarded with the late victory when Spencley finished off a strong weekend and scored the game winner with just over a minute remaining in the game. Assists during this game came from James Chandra (2), while McGinn picked up his 4th consecutive win in net for the Petes.
The Petes will now have a slight break in games as they wait for the other Lakeshore teams to finish up the regular season, but will be in action as playoffs get under way mid-January.
The Petes would like to thank Mother Daughter Gardening and Tribute Audio Designs for their sponsorship of the team this year.