Petes 60th Season - "The Season Before History was Made"
- AlwaysHockey Staff
- Jul 1, 2015
- 3 min read
Photo Credit - Petes Website (Team Photo)
To kick off the "60 Days of 60 Seasons" we take a look at the year before history was made. The 59th Peterborough Petes season was a year of disappointment once again. The team had a poor fan attendance throughout the season, player problems, trades and a early playoff exit to the Petes rival, the Oshawa Generals. The Petes traded away their best player in the biggest trade of the season with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Petes sent Nick Ritchie and caption Connor Boland to the Greyhounds for three second round draft picks, a 3rd round pick and defensemen Kyle Jenkins.
In November The Petes were the subject of the news feeds because of centre Greg Betzold. He was suspended with Belleville Bulls forward Jake Marchment for 15 games for off-ice activities. The league suspended them for breaking the league’s social networking (Tinder) policy and a number of other policies, including Respect in Sport (Harassment and Abuse) and diversity.
Although heart aches came this year for the Petes, their were some positive moments that shined bright on the season. They honored former Petes defenseman and future NHL hall of famer Chris Pronger with a banner that was raised to the Peterborough Memorial Centre rafters on November 2. This event brought many of Pronger's NHL friends to the PMC. NHL TV outlets were present for the game, and people like Brian Burke, Paul Holmgren, and Jamie Mclennan were in attendance.
Another great memory for The Petes season was being host to the CHL Super Series game on November 13. The game is played with the OHL best players against Russia's national hockey team. The Petes were represented by forward Nick Ritchie, Hunter Garlent and defenseman Matt Spencer. The Petes head coach Jody Hull was assistant coach for Team OHL and his assistants Paul Mattucci and Andrew Verner from Peterborough were also assistants for Team OHL. The game was broadcasted live on Sportsnet and was a final score of 4-0 Russia. The attendance for the game was 2,650.
One of the best memories for The Petes this season was hosting their 6th annual Pink In The Rink campaign. The event is used to help bring awareness for breast cancer research. This year the Petes brought in Dan O'toole, as the honourary co-chair. Dan is a hometown favourite currently working for Fox Sports in the United States. He is most famous for being a TSN sports anchor. The grand total raised was $72,923 while Dan raised $6,895 on his own doing a fundraising web page.
Another great Peterborough Petes moment came this year from forward Jonathon Ang. He scored the goal of the year with his beautiful spin-o-rama against the London Knights. The highlight was seen across the country on all major sporting outlets.
To finish the season The Petes top 3 scorers were Michael Clarke (55 points), Josh Macdonald (52) and Eric Cornel (52). Goaltenders for the Petes were Dylan Wells (7-15-1-3), and Matthew Mancina (19-17-0-1). The Petes recorded for the 2014-2015 season was 26 wins, 36 loses, 1 overtime loss and 5 shootout losses for a total of 58 points. After a 8th place finish in the Eastern Conference and a early playoff exit, the Peterborough Petes will have a positive outlook for two defencemen on their roster. Matt Spencer and Cameron Lizotte have each been ranked in the top 100 among North American skaters eligible for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. Spencer is likely to be selected in the top 50.
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