On February 15th
the Petes met up with the Whitby Wildcats (White) team to compete for the fourth
time this season. The Petes had previously
played the Wildcats in a tournament as well as two regular season games and the
Wildcats got the better of them in all those meetings. On this night the Petes were looking to send
a message to the Wildcats that they had improved since their last meeting and
not to take them lightly.
The first period was a
great period for the Petes defensively and offensively. The Petes forecheck was on full display and caused
the Wildcats numerous issues when they tried to breakout of their own
zone. The Petes because of the great
forechecking generated quality scoring chances.
However, neither team was able to score, and the first period ended
0-0. The Petes put in their best period
of the year versus the Wildcats and sent an early message letting them know
they showed up to play and wouldn’t be a push over.
The second period
started with a defensive breakdown off the opening faceoff that allowed the
Wildcats to quickly enter the Petes zone and score within the first ten seconds
of the period. This was a wakeup call
for the Petes and they immediately got focused once again and the game continued
as it did in the first period with back-and-forth action. Then the Wildcats were accessed a charging
penalty. This was the opportunity the
Petes needed. The Petes powerplay went
to work. The Petes were able to generate
a lot of pressure in the Wildcats zone generating scoring chance after scoring
chance. But the Wildcats goalie was up
to the task and managed to shut down the Petes scoring attempts. As the period progressed the Wildcats were
gaining more and momentum. Then the unforeseen
happened when two Petes players had to be removed from play due to sustaining injuries
on two separate plays. The Petes bench
which was already short players became even shorter as there were only 4 substitute
players on the bench. The Petes
continued to battle hard and would get their second powerplay opportunity of
the period. This however would prove to
be a momentum killer as the Petes were unable to generate any pressure in the Wildcats
zone and struggled to get the puck out of our own end. There were no more goals would be scored and the
Wildcats took a 1-0 lead into the second intermission.
In the third period
the energy levels were becoming depleted, and the team ran into penalty issues and
took 4 consecutive penalties. This gave
the Wildcats the opportunity they needed as they were able to get their skilled
players on the ice gain a lot of momentum and score 3 times during these
powerplays. This in addition to two regular
strength goals gave the Wildcats a 6-0 victory.
The Petes played thirty minutes
of great competitive hockey on this night and sent the message to the Wildcats
that the Petes are more than capable to step up to the Wildcats level of play. Way to go Petes!
The Petes next game is
against the Clarington Toros on Saturday, February 18th @ 4:45 PM at the
Kinsmen Civic Centre.
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Thank
you to our Game Day sponsor Papas Pizza Land for supporting our team!
Go Petes
Go!
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