A back-and-forth affair saw the Kingston Frontenacs (20-19-1-1) battle their East Division rival Oshawa Generals (15-21-1-3) to a 3-2 win on Friday night at Leon’s Centre. It was the fourth of an eight-game season series against the Gens. The tight victory gives Kingston three wins in their last four games for their 20th victory on the season.
Oshawa native Gage Heyes scored in the first period to take a Kingston 1-0 lead to the middle frame before a three-goal second period with tallies by Oshawa’s Calum Ritchie, Stuart Rolofs and Kingston’s Owen Outwater set up a 2-2 third period. With just over five minutes left, Maddox Callens finished off a nice play by Paul Ludwinski to seal a 3-2 win, and a third win in four games against Oshawa on the season.
Colorado Avalanche prospect Ivan Zhigalov made his 28th appearance in the Kingston crease seeing 30 shots with 28 saves. Oshawa countered with rookie Carter Bickle in his 13th game seeing 27 Frontenacs shots.
Raine Nadeau made his OHL debut in a Kingston uniform after toiling with the OJHL’s Stouffville Spirit and Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL this season. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound defender wearing number seven skated with veteran Tommy Budnick on his first shift.
Fronts points leader Matthew Soto had a solid chance to open the scoring on Kingston’s first shot 3:25 in, and Zhigalov stoned David bedkowski on a wicked shot from the faceoff dot just with just over five minutes played. Ethan Miedema tested Bickle on a close rebound after Soto had driven the net on a nice rush with the Fronts outshooting the Generals 6-4 through the halfway mark of the frame.
Mitchell Brooks set up Oshawa native Gage Heyes for his second goal in three games (3) beating Bickle over the blocker for Kingston’s 27th game-opening tally and 1-0 lead at 14:44. After two Gens players collided, Brooks made a nice play drawing the goalkeeper to himself before dishing it off to Hayes for the Fronts 11th shot on the Oshawa net with Tommy Budnick also earning an assist for a second straight contest.
Dylan Roobroeck almost had a tie game, but Zhigalov glove save with 19 seconds left kept the Fronts one-goal lead intact heading to a second period and helping improve to a 14-3-1-0 record when leading after twenty minutes.
The games first penalty with 16 seconds left in the first saw Oshawa taking 1:44 of powerplay time to the second frame but dropped to 1-14-0-1 record trailing when starting the second period. It was tied up with 77 seconds left in the penalty as Oshawa’s Calum Ritchie (16) scored on a screened snapshot that Zhigalov couldn’t see past his shoulder 1:15 into the period.
The Black and Gold responded quickly with another go-ahead tally by Owen Outwater (8) for the 2-1 lead less than a minute later. A crowded crease saw Outwater battle off Gens defenders with Soto gaining an assist and Ethan Miedema drawing his first point as a Frontenac also with a helper at 2:09.
Oshawa’s Stuart Rolofs (16) got in alone on the Kingston net with 4:41 remaining in the second and beat Zhigalov with a nice backhand deke over the goalie’s pad making it a 2-2 game with the teams even at 20-20 in shots on goal.
It was Kingston’s turn to begin a frame on the man advantage, taking 23 seconds of time to start of the third on a late second period Gens penalty, and improved to 5-3-0-0 heading into a tied final twenty minutes.
Paul Hughes made a great defensive play on Oshawa’s Jordyn Ertel preventing the forward from gaining a break in alone on the Kingston net shortly before Oshawa went to its third powerplay just over two minutes in the third but were held shotless by a stiffened Kingston penalty kill.
Zhigalov made a nice save with just over six minutes left on a rifle from the slot to keep it squared up moments before Paul Ludwinski set up Maddox Callens (7) for the game winning 3-2 tally with 5:40 remaining. Cal Uens earned his first point as a Frontenac with an assist on the goal.
The Fronts travel for consecutive road games tomorrow against Niagara and Sunday afternoon versus Guelph to wrap up a three-in-three stretch.
Scorers:
KGN: Heyes (3), Outwater (8), Callens (7)
OSH: Ritchie (16), Rolofs (16)
PowerPlays:
KGN: (0/2)
OSH: (1/3)
BMW of Kingston Hardest Worker:
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