Petes’ OT win evens series
Kieron Walton scored at 13:54 of overtime to lift the Peterborough Petes to a 4-3 Ontario Hockey League victory Friday night over the North Bay Battalion, evening the teams’ best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal at 1-1.
The series now shifts to North Bay’s Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens for the third and fourth games, at 2 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday night.
Walton joined Brennan Faulkner and Braydon McCallum in providing one goal and one assist, and Francis Parish also scored for the fourth-place Petes. Goaltender Easton Rye faced 43 shots before 2,181 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre.
Cam Warren, Ryder Carey and Kent Greer scored for fifth-place North Bay, which got 36 saves from goaltender Jack Lisson.
For the winner, Walton got to the net, took a pass from McCallum on the end boards and lofted the puck over Lisson’s blocker. Adam Levac had the second assist.
Both teams had chances in overtime, which saw the Battalion forge a 10-7 edge in shots. Aaron Enright fired the puck off the right post with the Troops on the power play in the fifth minute after James Petrovski drew a delay-of-game penalty, and Lisson foiled Adam Novotny in close in the ninth.
The series opener was a 1-0 win for the Battalion on Thursday night, but the teams combined for five goals in the first period of Game 2.
The Petes opened the scoring at 2:24 after Calum Hartnell cruised through the slot and slid the puck to Parish, who fired it past a sliding Lisson from the right side. Faulkner also assisted.
Warren replied at 5:48 off a turnover. After missing the net with an initial attempt, he got the puck back in short order and fired it into an open net from the right-wing circle. Nolan Laird had the lone assist on rookie Warren’s first playoff goal.
Faulkner connected at 11:39, firing the puck behind Lisson from a sharp angle near the boards to the goaltender’s left. Aidan Young and Grayden Strohack earned assists.
The Petes opened a 3-1 lead at 16:26. Lisson stopped McCallum’s shot from the deep slot, but he backhanded the rebound under the goaltender’s right pad. Levac and Walton received assists.
Carey answered with an unassisted goal 34 seconds later, fending off a Leon Kolarik check and beating Rye with a wrister from the slot.
Greer tied it 3-3 at 18:55 of the second period when his wide shot from inside the right point deflected off Petrovski’s right skate past Rye. Kaden Pitre and Ethan Procyszyn drew assists on defenceman Greer’s first career postseason goal.
The Troops built a 19-7 edge in shots in the frame. Rye slid to his left post to deny Lirim Amidovski in the fourth minute and got enough of a Parker Vaughan drive in the seventh minute to send the puck skittering past the post. Lisson, who foiled Levac on a rebound attempt in close in the 14th minute, denied him breaking in alone seconds later.
Neither team could find a go-ahead goal in the third period as the hosts outshot the Battalion 15-5. Lisson got his right pad on a Young shot in the sixth minute and made two stops on McCallum from the deep slot in the seventh. Lisson turned away a Young chance from the deep slot in the final minute.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 18-26 in the second game of playoff series, including 4-12 on the road. The Troops are 11-12 since relocating to North Bay for the 2013-14 season … The Battalion has an all-time log of 16-26 in playoff overtime games … Greer led the Battalion with seven shots on goal. McCallum paced the Petes with seven … Each team went 0-for-3 on the power play … Opening lines included Procyszyn centring left winger Pitre and right winger Nick Wellenreiter, Ryder Cali centring left winger Sebastien Gervais and right winger Amidovski and Warren skating between left winger Laird and right winger Vaughan. Evgeny Dubrovtsev centred left winger Arseny Pronin and right winger Carey … Defence pairings were Bronson Ride with Hayden Barch, Enright with Greer and Carter Kunopaski with Adrian Manzo … Mike McIvor backed up Lisson … The Battalion was without Jonathan Kapageridis, Brandt Harper, Alexander Karmanov and Shamar Moses … Enright turns 19 on Saturday. The Cobden, Ont., resident was a fourth-round pick in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection from the Renfrew Wolves U18s … The Troops spent two nights at Peterborough after leaving North Bay on Wednesday … Among the missing for Peterborough were Kaden McGregor and Matthew Soto, who left the opener and didn’t return … Scott Ferguson and Derek Risebrough were the referees.
