Peterborough rallies to beat Kamloops 5-4 in OT in Memorial Cup tiebreaker

By AP | Jun 3, 2023

Peterborough Petes forward J.R. Avon (10) celebrates his overtime goal against the Kamloops Blazers in a CHL Memorial Cup hockey game Thursday, June 1, 2023, in Kamloops, British Columbia. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (AP) — J.R. Avon scored at 10:54 of overtime and the Peterborough Petes beat the host Kamloops Blazers 5-4 in the Memorial Cup tiebreaker Thursday night to advance to face the Seattle Thunderbirds in the semifinal.

Avon took a drop pass from Owen Beck and beat goalie Dylan Ernst with a shot into the top of the net.

Ontario Hockey League champion Peterborough will face the Western Hockey League champion Thunderbirds on Friday night for a spot in the final Sunday against the Quebec Remparts.

Connor Lockhart, Brennan Othmann, Samuel Mayer and Brian Zanetti also scored for Peterborough and Michael Simpson made 43 saves. Down 4-1 early in the second period, the Petes tied it on Zanetti’s goal with 1:10 left in the period.

Peterborough beat the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Remparts 4-2 on Tuesday night in their round-robin finale to avoid elimination and force the tiebreaker game.

Logan Stankoven, Olen Zellweger, Harrison Brunicke and Logan Bairos scored for Kamloops. The Blazers dropped into the tiebreaker game Wednesday night with a 6-1 loss to Seattle.