(TORONTO, ON) June 8, 2022 — The Toronto Beaches took home their third straight victory on Wednesday night, using a big third period to come out with a 9-7 victory against the Orangeville Northmen at Ted Reeve Arena.
The first period was a low-scoring affair, with the Beaches nabbing the only two goals of the frame.
David Peterkin got his first career Junior A goal after grabbing a ball at centre floor, beating his man in a foot race, and beating Chris Origlieri with a shot in transition.
David Anderson followed that up minutes later with a blast from the top of the offensive zone.
Coming out for the second, Orangeville made their run, pushing out into the lead with four unanswered goals, capped off by an Elijah Edwards transition marker.
Cam Acchione ended the run with a power-play marker, as the righty finished off a Willem Firth feed into the middle with a quick stick shot. The Northmen answered with their fifth goal of the night shortly after, and after Firth scored his first of the night, Orangeville added another to keep the two-goal gap.
Greg Palmer pulled the Beaches to within a goal on another quick-stick finish, as Toronto headed into the locker room down 6-5 after 40 minutes.
The third opened up with a Clifford Gaston goal, as the forward worked his way into the middle of the floor with the clock down and beat Origlieri. That was followed by Jakson Raposo blowing past the Orangeville forwards in transition to give the Beaches the lead.
“It puts a little less pressure on our offence when we can contribute (In transition),” Raposo said after the game. “It lets them play their game more and slow down. If we can speed up their offence and then push in transition, it just helps our whole team. I think a big part of our team is transition. So it really helped tonight.”
Toronto’s run continued off of back-to-back goals from Firth. The first was a blast from the outside that pinged off the post. Under a minute later, he got underneath his defender, drove the net, and secured the hat trick, putting the Beaches up 9-6 in the process.
Liam Matthews got the lone Northmen goal with 2:28 to go in the third, but a holding penalty to Orangeville in the closing minute allowed the Beaches to kill off the remainder of the clock to take home the win.
“That Orangeville team is a young, talented team with a really good goaltender in net. I think one of our focus points tonight was to finish our game,” Beaches assistant coach Damon Edwards said post-game. “That’s what we did in the third period. Only letting in the one goal was a big bonus for us. We kind of let it slip away in Burlington, so to have this outcome in the third, it was huge for us.”
Now sitting at 6-3, the Beaches are right back in action against the Mimico Mountaineers on Thursday night at Ted Reeve Arena.