Third Period Comeback Lifts Petes Past Battalion
For the final time in the regular season, the Petes suited up on a Thursday night at the PMC, welcoming the conference rival North Bay Battalion to town. The Petes battled back in the third period to earn a big 4-3 win against the Battalion, jumping up into sole possession of fifth in the Eastern Conference.
After honouring the many amazing billet families that provide a home and more to Petes players, the Electric City Kids jumped out of the gate with Daniel Nikandrov dropping a great pass to Josh Maguire for the opening goal.
After Matt Mancina and his PK squad calmly killed a Battalion powerplay in the middle of the period, Hunter Garlent picked up his seventh goal in as many periods, doubling the Petes’ lead on a great powerplay goal assisted by Eric Cornel and Dominik Masin.
The Petes held off a late Batallion surge to take their two-goal lead into the intermission to go along with a 15-10 shot advantage.
North Bay pressed hard in the second period with sights set on getting on the board. After some excellent work early on by Mancina, league-leading scorer Mike Amadio netted his 47th of the season after a stretch pass from the goalie, Jake Smith.
An energetic crowd anxiously awaited the next goal, but despite several well-run Petes powerplays, it didn’t come in the second period as the squad settled for a 2-1 Peterborough lead after two sets. The shots were 30-19 for the home team.
Jake Smith played like a wild man in the third period, keeping his Troops behind by just one goal. This was crucial, as the Battalion would find their scoring touch just minutes later. First, Zach Poirier scored from Kyle Wood and Mike Baird with a hot shot on a 2-on-1, and just _ later Zach Shankar gave North Bay their first lead of the night from Kyle Potts and Justin Brazeau.
It was a game of give and take in the third period, and after North Bay’s double-dip the Petes were quick to net a pair of their own. With 8:21 to play, Garlent lofted a pass to Cornel, who gloved it down and found Logan DeNoble with a no-look backhand pass to make it 3-3. After DeNoble’s tally, Greg Betzold picked up his fortieth goal of the campaign to give Peterborough a 4-3 lead assisted by Steve Lorentz.
Mancina was exceptional in the final minutes of the game, and with 2:05 to play North Bay took a too-many-men penalty, allowing the Petes to burn valuable time in the final minutes.
Garlent, Cornel, and Smith were the first, second, and third stars of the game, respectively, with Maguire picking up Mark’s hardest working player of the game honours. The final shots on goal were 40 for Peterborough and 31 for North Bay.
Join the Petes on Tuesday for the final regular season game of the year, featuring Cam Lizotte and the Barrie Colts. Tickets are available here for the game and for the 2016 playoffs. Download the free Petes Mobile App for iPhone or Android to earn loyalty rewards points that you can use toward awesome Petes apparel, memorabilia and gift cards.
