Petes Put Dogs on Ice
The Petes finished their three-in-three weekend with the first match-up of the season against the Niagara IceDogs. On the back a strong start, the Petes earned a 3-2 win over the ‘Dogs to head into next week on a strong note.
After local lacrosse heroes young and old were recognized prior to the game, Peterborough came out gunning looking to improve on their offensive output of the previous two match-ups. The home team controlled play in the first period, putting several good shots on Stephen Dhillon, but the Ice Dogs withstood all chances.
Mancina and Dhillon succeeded in frustrating all attackers en route to a scoreless first, with Peterborough ending the period on top 9-7 in shots.
Peterborough came out of their shell in the second period, officially breaking out of a mini scoring slump. Just 2:57 into the period, Hunter Garlent dipped and ducked his way around three defenders to score the game’s first goal unassisted. Then, Eric Cornel scored his first of the season, also unassisted, sandwiching some great Matt Mancina saves between the two Petes goals.
The Petes held most of the momentum through the second half of the period, keeping Dhillon busy and the IceDogs out of the attacking zone. After forty minutes the maroon mauraders led 2-0 with a 26-17 advantage on the shot clock.
The third period was all Peterborough in the early goings, with the home team looking well-oiled on a powerplay. The only thing they didn’t do was score, though, as Niagara somehow kept their net empty in the early onslaught.
The IceDogs battled back with less than ten minutes to play, working to take advantage of a 5-on-3 powerplay with time winding down. On the man advantage, Lindsay native Vince Dunn made his hometown team pay with a rocket one-timer to cut the Petes’ lead in half from Josh Ho-Sang and Mikkel Aagaard. The visitors made the Petes pay on the powerplay again as Brendan Perlini evened the score at 2-2 from Dunn and Jordan Maletta less than a minute later.
The Petes put themselves back in the goal column (although not the assist column), as Greg Betzold scored his team-leading fourth of the game to put the Petes back out in front 3-2. This proved to be the final score, as Peterborough held on in a frantic final minute. Mancina made 29 saves in the win to Dhillon’s 35.
Hunter Garlent, Vince Dunn, and Greg Betzold were the first, second, and third stars of the game, respectively, with Dominik Masin earning Mark’s Work Wearhouse hardest working player of the game honours. The Petes hit the road on Thanksgiving weekend with games in Windsor on Thursday before the annual Michigan double-header on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available for the Petes homecoming on Thursday, October 17 at 7:05pm. Don’t forget to download the free Petes app for news, contests, the loyalty rewards program, and to watch exclusive content including the post-game interview livestream.
