It’s a good thing the Peterborough Timbermen have second place wrapped up or they might be even madder about the way their 12-11 loss to the Oshawa Outlaws went down on Saturday night.
Down a goal with 48 seconds to go, Fred Hartley was dragged down by a defender as Outlaws’ goaltender Rance Vigneux stopped Hartley’s shot. That should have reset the shot clock, and the Timbermen would have been happy with an Outlaws’ holding penalty as well. But as the refs would have it, the Timbermen got neither. Oshawa was awarded the ball and killed off the remaining 15 seconds.
It was hard to swallow after two consecutive weeks of impressive second-half comebacks, but the Timbermen just didn’t have enough in the tank this time.
However, they’re not worried.
“Going into playoffs locking up second place is good for us so this was just a test game,” defenseman Dalton Hill said. “We’ll build off this and lead into next week and hopefully we come out with another win, but this was just a practice for us for sure.”
Trailing 12-8 with 6:55 to go, the formerly lethargic Timbermen sparked to life, suddenly smelling another comeback. They fought harder for loose balls and tried to get creative to beat Vigneux.
Aaron Woods finally broke through with 2:53 left to get the ball rolling. Hill draped himself over every Outlaws’ forward he could to prevent them from getting close to Nick Damude. Doug Utting practically threw an opponent into the boards to recover the ball for the Timbermen with 48 seconds left after Mark Vradenburg scored twice in 53 seconds to close the gap to a single goal.
“We stepped up in the fourth quarter. A lot of talk between periods really got us motivated towards the end of the second half of the game,” Hill said. “We did build off [a good second quarter] leading into the second half, but things with the referees didn’t go our way.”
This was an odd game for the Timbermen, who have been used to dominating this season. But they trailed almost from the get-go, down 1-0 just 1:08 into the game. Clay Arnold quickly tied it up with his first of the season, but the Outlaws outscored the Timbermen 4-1 the rest of the quarter for a 5-2 lead.
Peterborough was impressive in the second quarter. Nick Damude held the Outlaws scoreless while Hartley and Vradenburg scored to close the gap to 5-4 at halftime.
Each team tallied three times in the third.
Oshawa played like a desperate team without their top two scorers in Mike Triolo and John St. John. They relied heavily on Vigneux, who played his best game of the season. The win moves the Outlaws into third place behind the Timbermen.
“They came out flying and kept their pace up all game,” Hill said.
The Timbermen’s final regular season contest is next Saturday, March 30 at 3 p.m. vs the Six Nations Snipers at Children’s Arena. Playoffs begin with the quarterfinals on April 6that the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. The Timbermen’s opponent is yet to be determined.
Scoring for the Timbermen:
Mark Vradenburg (4-2)
Aaron Woods (3-1)
Fred Hartley (2-1)
Clay Arnold (1-1)
Parker Sands (1-0)
Tim Bergin (0-6)
Blake Kenny (0-3)
Doug Utting (0-2)
Zack Thompson (0-1)
