Peterborough Petes Overcome Three-Goal Deficit, J.R. Avon Becomes Hometown Hero With Overtime Goal

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The Peterborough Petes come back from a three-goal deficit with hometown hero J.R. Avon scoring in overtime to eliminate the host Kamloops Blazers, 5-4 at the Sandman Centre on Thursday night.

This game was the first one that required ovetime to settle a winner for this year’s Memorial Cup. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough Petes.

The Petes drew first blood as Jax Dubois from behind the net, fed Connor Lockhart out in front for a one-timed goal, beating Blazers goalie Dylan Ernst for a 1-0 lead.

The host Kamloops took over the rest of the period as they run off three straight goals from Logan Stankoven, Olen Zellweger (power play) and Harrison Brunicke for a 3-1 lead over Peterborough after the first.

Things did not get better as Logan Bairos extended Kamloops’s lead 4-1 with a point shot to help extinguish Peterborough’s hope to advance.

The Petes would not go down quietly and Brennan Othmann pickpocketed Bairos with a stick lift and quickly snapped it over Ernst’s glove to cut the lead to two.

Peterborough got some puck luck as Kamloops accidentally lifted the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty and gave the Petes a power play. Samuel Mayer made it count as he one-timed a slapshot from the point and blasted it through heavy traffic to make it a one-goal game.

It only took 73 seconds for Peterborough to tie the game as the Petes won a board battle that saw Brian Zanetti tip in a Tucker Robertson pass for a 4-4 tie to finish off the second period.

The third period saw both teams play very cautiously but both goaltenders were up to the task, as Petes goaltender Michael Simpson stopped all 12 shots in the period as Ernst saved all seven shots. The game would require overtime to settle things, the first of the tournament.

The overtime period made hearts race as both teams had high-scoring chances in the first half of overtime. Simpson made a crucial save as Kamloops had a shot at ending the game. Owen Beck led the counterattack and attracted the attention of two Blazers. He passed it back to Selwyn’s J.R. Avon who shot against the grain and scored for a 5-4 walk-off goal.

Simpson was named player of the game making 43 saves on 47 shots for the overtime win. He shut the Blazers out in the last 46:37 of the game.

The Petes will get little opportunity to rest as they face the Seattle Thunderbirds in the semi-final matchup on Friday night. The puck drop is at 10 p.m. The winner moves on to the finals to play the Quebec Remparts for the Memorial Cup.

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