After knocking off the number one ranked Jr. A team in the country this week, Haliburton County Huskies co-captain Ty Petrou said confidence is at an alltime high as the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) regular season winds down.
With a playoff spot already confirmed, the Huskies travelled into the belly of the beast Feb. 11 for a top-of-thetable tussle with the Trenton Golden Hawks. The visitors potted an early powerplay goal and never looked back, running away with a 4-2 victory to end Trenton’s 12-game unbeaten run.
Heading into the titanic clash, Petrou said the Huskies, missing the likes of Raine Nadeau, Alex Bradshaw and Declan Bowmaster through injury and suspension, were confident of an upset.
“It’s just something about playing Trenton, everyone gets up for it that little bit extra. There’s a bit of a rivalry there and I think the guys are just more dialed in and ready to go,” Petrou said. “We take them really seriously and knew we had to come out and make an impression right away.”
It took the team barely two minutes to make good on the promise, with Isaac Larmand scoring on the man advantage at 1:56 for his 14th goal of the season. Defenceman Cameron Hankai assisted, his 33rd apple of the season.
The Golden Hawks rallied, with Devin Mauro finding a way past Stephen Toltl at 9:09 to tie the game. The Huskies maintained their composure, retaking the lead just seconds later after Deandres De Jesus broke away to pot his teamleading 26th tally of the season at 10:30. He was teed up by Chase Lefebvre on the play.
Petrou scored the insurance goal, and eventual gamewinner, three-quarters of the way through the second period – again on the powerplay, with Hankai and Nathan Poole assisting.
“We’ve been struggling a bit on the powerplay – we changed things up, adopted more of a shooting mentality. I saw Hank walking the blueline, saw the opportunity to grab the puck and just ripped it,” Petrou said of the play.
Buoyed by a capacity home crowd, Trenton pushed hard in the final frame. They cut the deficit to one at 17:25 and threw everything at Toltl playing six-on-five as they sought to maintain their undefeated streak, but the Huskies stood strong. Petrou made sure of the win at 19:13 with an empty-netter, earning first star honours for his goalscoring exploits.
“It was an intense end to the game – they’re a very skilled team, so you just want to try and stay as calm as possible, try not to overdo things too much. But I think we handled the pressure really well and showed we were the better team right down to the final minute,” he said.
The 20-year-old centreman thinks the win meant more than just two points to he and his teammates.
“Getting a result like that shows us that we can play with absolutely anybody in this league. We had all four forward lines rolling, all our defence played big minutes – confidence is as high as it could be. We have a great group in the locker room, the coaches spend a lot of time preparing us… I think we’re hitting our stride at the perfect time,” Petrou said.
Canadiens 6-3 Huskies
Fans inside S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena on Saturday were treated to an epic offensive display that saw the Huskies fall into a hole early, work their way out, before stumbling down the final stretch in a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens.
It was a tough opening half of the game for the home side, with the Huskies finding themselves 3-0 down midway through the second on goals from Ryder McIntyre, Joseph Macchione and Kristian Lamanna.
De Jesus made it a two-goal game at 13:44 of the middle frame. Petrou further reduced the deficit 13 seconds into the third, before Poole tied things at 10:11. With the crowd back on-side, it felt like the Huskies had all the momentum. The Canadiens then won the faceoff at centre ice and scored the go-ahead goal just six seconds later.
That sucked all the air out of the arena, with the visitors scoring again at 10:49 and 17:59 to make sure of the win.
The Huskies are back on the road Feb. 14 against the Burlington Cougars before a four-game homestand closes the curtain on the regular season schedule at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena. They host the North York Rangers Feb. 15, Lindsay Muskies Feb. 17, Markham Royals Feb. 22, and Stouffville Spirit Feb. 23.
