Spirit score 3 times in final 4 minutes to seal 6-2 road victory over the Peterborough Petes

 

The Saginaw Spirit (28-13-2-2) picked up two huge points on the road against the No. 2 team in the Ontario Hockey League's eastern conference with a 6-2 victory over the Peterborough Petes inside the Peterborough Memorial Centre in downtown Peterborough, ON tonight. 

 

Protecting a 3-2 lead with just over 4-minutes to play, the Spirit exploded with a three goal scoring barrage, kicked started by Blade Jenkins (9) who gave his team a 2-goal cushion after scoring his ninth goal of the season on a feed from Cole Coskey to take a 4-2 lead at 15:58 of the third period, while Cole Perfetti (25) added an unassisted empty net goal to make it a 5-2 game just over two minutes later at the 17:19 mark, before DJ Busdeker (11) followed with his second goal of the night to round out the scoring (6-2) with an assist from Danil Antropov at 17:42 of the third. 

 

The Spirit had jumped out to an early lead when Coskey (26) lit the lamp for his twenty-sixth tally of the season with assists from Perfetti and Ryan Suzuki for a 1-0 lead at 5:49 of the opening period. 

 

Peterborough took advantage of four consecutive power plays in the second period, converting twice when Zach Gallant (26) tied the game at 1-goal apiece with a power play goal at 1:13 of the second, while Petes' LW Nick Robertson (32) gave his team a 2-1 lead with another power play goal at the 5:34 mark, before Busdeker (10) who had been grinding on Saginaw's fourth straight penalty kill of the frame, stole the puck and knotted things up at 2-goals apiece with his fifth shorthanded goal of the season at 13:48 of the second period. 

 

Spirit captain Damien Giroux (28) would put Saginaw back on top in the final minute of the middle frame with what would become the game winning goal when he beat Peterborough goal tender Hunter Jones for his twenty-eighth tally of the season with assists from DJ King and Ilya Solovyov to give the Spirit a 3-2 lead at 19:07 of the second period.

 

Saginaw goal tender Marshall Frappier stopped 34 of the 36 shots he would face in between the pipes for the Spirit tonight, while his counterpart, Jones, turned away 29 of the 33 shots he saw in net for the Petes. 

 

The Spirit will continue on this eastern conference road trip with a visit to take on the Kingston Frontenacs with a 7 pm face off at the Leon's Centre in Kingston, ON tomorrow night.