Petes prevail in overtime
Brennan Faulkner scored at 2:59 of overtime to give the Peterborough Petes a 4-3 victory Sunday over the North Bay Battalion and a two-point lead over the Troops in their fight for fourth place in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
Aiden Young joined Faulkner with one goal and one assist, and Adam Novotny and Kieron Walton also scored for the Petes, while goaltender Easton Rye provided 33 saves in a hotly contested clash that included four fights.
Peterborough moved its won-lost-extended record to 37-24-4 for 78 points, third in the East Division. North Bay is 36-25-4 for 76 points, second in the Central Division and fifth in the conference. The result guaranteed a first-round playoff matchup between the teams, with home-ice advantage still to be decided as each has three games left.
Ryder Cali, Ryder Carey and Parker Vaughan scored for the Battalion, which got 37 saves from goaltender Jack Lisson before a crowd of 2,622 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
“That’s as close as you’re going to get to a playoff game here in the regular season,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen, whose Troops are 10-3-1 in their last 14 games.
After the Battalion’s Kent Greer failed to score on a breakaway in the first minute of overtime, Faulkner wheeled from the high slot to the left side and snapped the puck home for his 27th goal of the campaign to give Peterborough its first win in the teams’ four-game season series. James Petrovski and Young had assists.
The Petes, who trailed 2-1 through 40 minutes, got goals from Young on a backhander at the crease at 7:53 and Walton on a short-side shot from the right circle at 13:41 of the third period. It was Walton’s 38th goal and his 14th in 26 games since a trade from the Sudbury Wolves.
Vaughan precipitated overtime 1:06 later, stepping into the puck from a left-wing faceoff and beating Rye cleanly. The unassisted tally was Vaughan’s 14th.
Cali struck shorthanded at 16:46 of the first period, dashing down the left wing and scoring high to the short side. The unassisted goal was Cali’s 14th. The Petes were on the power play after Ethan Procyszyn took exception to a Garrett Frazer check on Bronson Ride and drew an instigating minor, major and misconduct to Frazer’s major at 16:18.
Carey connected at 19:39, swiping a high rebound home from the goalmouth after Evgeny Dubrovtsev cut across the mid slot, almost losing the disc, and got off a shot. Sebastien Gervais also assisted on Carey’s 15th goal.
The game’s first fight matched Young with Vaughan at 1:55, with each receiving a major. The period saw another fight 10 seconds after Carey’s goal as Peterborough’s Grayden Strohack and Lirim Amidovski tangled. Each was assessed a major.
Novotny scored at 1:34 of the second period after Lisson reached to his right behind the goal line in an attempt to play the puck and the Czech import tucked it inside the right post. Leon Kolarik and Calum Hartnell assisted on Novotny’s team-leading 33rd goal.
The Petes’ Yanis Lutz and Hayden Barch engaged in fisticuffs at 18:40, each serving a major in the aftermath.
