By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Three goals in the final seven minutes of the third period paced the Port Hope Panthers to a 6-4 win over the host Campbellford Rebels in Provincial Junior Hockey League action Saturday night.
Nolan Stevenson recorded a hat trick, including the tying and go-ahead goals in the final frame, and added an assist as he leads the Panthers with 12 goals and 15 points through 11 games.
While some familiar mistakes are still costing the Panthers, as was evident when they fell behind 2-0 and 3-1 earlier in the contest, head coach David Miller was still pleased with his club’s effort overall.
“For the most part I thought we played a very strong first period. I think we took three minutes off and they took the lead there towards the end,” Miller said. “The second period we got back to playing the way that we wanted to play. We were dictating play, badly out-shot them, we were all over them, we out-chanced them and the same thing in the third period. We stuck to our game plan and the boys did show a lot of resiliency not getting down and coming together as a team and fighting back.
“It was good to see how as we made changes during the game they were able to adapt to them and come out with the win.”
Ethan Salter scored his team-leading sixth and seventh goals for the Rebels as they took a 2-0 advantage out of the first period. He scored at the 16:58 mark of the opening frame and then on a power play at 18:31.
Three goals between the two clubs in the sixth minute of the second resulted in Campbellford clinging to a slim 3-2 lead. Oz Paziuk got the Panthers on the board at 6:06 while Connor MacGregor restored the two-goal lead at 6:21 and Stevenson tallied his first of the night for Port Hope at 6:49.
Stevenson’s assist came on an Evan Wright goal at 14:59 of the second that evened the scored at three apiece.
Campbellford’s Brock Kelsh scored 8:49 into the third as his club was either tied or ahead throughout most of the contest. The Rebels ran into penalty trouble in the final, though, and the Panthers capitalized.
Both of Stevenson’s third-period goals were scored during man-advantage opportunities at 13:13 and less than a minute later at 14:09.
Carter Clarke added an empty-net goal for the Panthers with five seconds remaining.
“It was a real team effort really,” said Panthers forward Michael Patrick, who assisted on Stevenson’s winner after competed at the OFSAA cross country running meet earlier in the day. “Our power play got clicking at the end of the game. They took a couple penalties and our power play came on strong for us.
“All four lines were going at the end of the game and we were able to hold on to the lead at the end.”
Port Hope improved to 4-6-1-0 to sit fourth in the PJHL’s Tod Division, three points ahead of the Rebels (3-7-0-0).
“It was a huge win because this league is so close and any team can win on any night, just whoever shows up,” Patrick said. “It was a huge win for us.”
Coach Miller said showing up is key and working on the fine details like backchecking properly and being in good position to cover their assignments.
“We’re working on our consistency in our effort and consistency in the players’ approach,” Miller said. “Some games we come out and we’re flying and other games we come out and it’s like a team that we don’t recognize. It’s something we’ve been working on all year finding keeping true to our identity and playing the way we can play instead of playing our opponent’s game. It’s still a learning process, but we’re slowly starting to get it.”
There have been a lot of positives as well and Miller wants to see more of those good things from his players.
“When things are going well we hound the puck really well, we are hard on the forecheck and we take lanes away. Especially in the o-zone, we’ve been working on having our guys strong in the corners and strong over the puck and I think when you see us playing well we really do possess the puck well down low and we’re able to generate scoring chances from that,” he said. “It’s definitely a process and we’re seeing improvements so that’s the main thing right now.”
Port Hope heads to Picton on Thursday evening to face the Pirates (7-4-0-0). The Panthers will then host the Pirates on Saturday evening. Game time is 7:30 p.m. at the Jack Burger Sports Complex.
