By Tyler Penney [1]
KINGSTON – In front of a nearly sold-out crowd at the K-Rock Centre [2] Friday night, the Kingston Frontenacs [3] impressed as they took the ice against the rival Peterborough Petes [4].
The Fronts wasted little time getting on the board, with a nifty deke leading to a goal from forward Ted Nichol 46 seconds in.
Just over halfway through the first period the Frontenacs doubled their lead, with an Eemeli Räsänen point shot finding its way through traffic and beating Petes goaltender Dylan Wells.
In an effort to bring some life into his team, Petes defenceman Alex Black caught Frontenacs forward Cody Caron with his head down and delivered a huge hit. Black was giving a five-minute major penalty for checking to the head and a game misconduct. Caron left the game but returned for the start of the second period.
The Frontenacs added to their lead on the power play after Black’s hit on Caron. Stephen Desrocher got the Fronts’ third goal with a minute left in the opening period. With 25 seconds left, the Petes took another penalty to give the Fronts a five-on-three power play to start the second period.
The shots in the first period were 11 for the Frontenacs and four for the Petes.
Kingston made it a 4-0 game just under a minute and a half into the second period, with Jason Robertson scoring on the power play. Then, just over three minutes into the period, Wells let Kingston’s Justin Pringle’s shot squeak through to give the Fronts a five-goal lead.
That was all for Wells. He was replaced with Scott Smith to try to stop the bleeding for the Petes.
But Peterborough was unable to register a shot on goal until the 11-minute mark of the period. Two minutes later, the Petes finally got on the board with a point shot from Cole Fraser.
A Kingston penalty proved costly for the Fronts, allowing the Petes to score on the power play to make it a 5-2 game. The goal came from Peterborough native Logan DeNoble. It was his 26th of the season.
The Frontenacs took their lead into the dressing room for the second intermission.
The Petes were all over the Frontenacs for the better half of the third period, looking to cut the Fronts’ lead. But they still were only able to manage five shots on Kingston goalie Jeremy Helvig in the first 10 minutes, while the Fronts had three shots on Smith.
Kingston’s Brett Neumann beat Smith on a short-handed breakaway to get the Fronts’ sixth goal of the game.
Shortly after that, Peterborough’s Kyle Jenkins and Kingston’s Caron were both ejected for a 10-minute misconduct with just over two minutes remaining.
The Petes weren’t able to register another goal and the Frontenacs walked out of the K-Rock Centre with a 6-2 win.
FAST FACTS:
Shots: Frontenacs 25, Petes 19
3rd Star: Jason Robertson, Kingston
2nd Star: Eemeli Räsänen, Kingston
1st Star: Stephen Desrocher, Kingston
Hardest worker of the game: Justin Pringle, Kingston
Next Frontenacs game: Friday vs. Oshawa [5]
Next Petes game: Thursday vs. Mississauga [6]