Andrew D’Agostini skated off the ice Tuesday night triumphant and ebullient, witnessing a scene he long dreamt of living out.
He was the game’s first star, stopping 26-of-28 shots and going three-for-four in the ensuing shootout, leading the charge for his team’s third-straight win. The fans, who were graciously renewing their enthusiasm in his team, the hometown Petes, serenaded their heroes with a standing ovation.
“It’s something I dreamt of coming into Peterborough my underage year (four years ago), hoping to make the team,” D’Agostini said Wednesday. “Just picturing a sold-out crowd, a standing ovation… it was an incredible feeling. Something that just shows you, what if we got a few rounds deep (in the playoffs)? This place would be rocking. Peterborough would be turned upside down and it really motivates us to do something special here.”
Such a thought would have been nothing more than a mere pipe dream three months earlier. The Petes were well on their way towards another rebuilding, non-playoff year in the first half. They sat last in the 20-team circuit with just eight wins in 35 games, a record that ultimately cost head coach Mike Pelino his job five days before Christmas.
The Petes were fast becoming a franchise known less about its prestige and rich history and more for its dysfunction in recent years. Countless star players asked to be traded, from Austin Watson to Matt Puempel, while Slater Koekkoek’s early season frustration captured in an interview with the Peterborough Examiner’s Mike Davies showed things were getting worse, not better.
“I’ve never experienced emotions that I went through the first half of the year with only one win,” said D’Agostini, who has 15 wins in the second half. “It was very discouraging. We almost found ways to lose games that we were in and we could have won.”
Jody Hull was promoted from an assistant to the interim head coach following Pelino’s firing. Hull, who suited up for the Petes during three seasons in the mid-to-late 1980s before playing parts of 16 seasons in the NHL, wiped the slate clean for the second half while preaching accountability.
“We came into the second half of the season feeling like it was day one,” D’Agostini said. “It felt like a new season coming in from Christmas break. Everyone was rejuvenated and refreshed and got some much needed time off.”
There was always accountability on the ice, Hull said, but the problems were off it. Such things as not being late for meetings and school or staying out past curfew were rules players would sometimes explore the boundaries of.
Like a substitute teacher, these rules were tested early. The players soon discovered Hull’s response wasn’t favourable.
“If you let one guy off the hook,” Hull said, “then you have to let the rest of the guys off the hook. It was just the matter of that first guy doing it and I set the tone right there.
“I’m a black and white guy. I tell them what they need to hear, not what they necessarily want. There’s no sugarcoating it with these guys. This is how it is. This is what you have to do. I don’t try to string them along at all. I just lay it on the line.”
In order for his Petes to become accountable, Hull knew he would need the link between the coaching staff to the players. He credits captain Derek Mathers and assistants Clark Seymour and Connor Boland for helping deliver his message: “that’s the only way a leadership group works. The players don’t always have to hear the message from their coaches. Sometimes getting the message through their peers in the locker room hits home a little more.”
The negative energy Koekkoek lamented in early October seemed to have lifted in the second half. When accountability reigned, finger-pointing subsided and a positive mindset, along with dogged determination and strong work ethic, soon led to a resurgence.
“The bounces started to go our way and we’ve started to build confidence,” D’Agostini said.
Still, the Petes were once 16 points back of a playoff spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference. And yet, the playoffs were anything but taboo. A playoff berth was the carrot being dangled in every meeting, every discussion.
The Petes have been playing playoff hockey since, as Hull put it, “I took over at Christmas-time.”
“The playoffs were always mentioned,” D’Agostini said. “We had to keep our eyes set on the playoffs just to visualize it and know that one day we could reach that spot.”
The first “must-win” game was on Feb. 28, when the Petes hosted the rebuilding Ottawa 67’s. It was the team’s eighth-last game of the season, and if they were going to close the gap in the playoff race, they needed it now more than ever. The Petes beat the 67’s 4-3 in a shootout, and a playoff series with different opponents ensued.
“I kind of used that as a seven-game series within my own kind of mindset,” Hull said. “That’s how I prepared the guys from game-to-game.”
The Petes lost the next two games on the road, but won the last three at home. The shootout win over Mississauga on Tuesday put them in a tie with Kingston for the last playoff spot, something that once felt so far out of reach.
The fans recognized the players’ efforts, win or lose, and began refilling the rink in support of a team they were proud to stand behind.
“There’s no question in my mind that’s why they’re back at the rink and that’s why there’s a buzz in the city,” Hull said of the fans’ appreciation of their efforts.
D’Agostini often refers to this second half resurgence as a Cinderella story. The Petes have two games remaining in their schedule — with Friday’s game against Kingston on Sportsnet’s Friday Night Hockey — another two must-win games if the Petes are to slip on the magical glass slipper before the clock strikes midnight on this fairytale.
“I can’t believe how far we’ve come,” D’Agostini said. “We’re just trying to have a great weekend coming up here and give Peterborough what they deserve and they deserve to see a playoff round or two.”
A timeline look at the Peterborough Petes the past three seasons.
March 31, 2010 – Petes fire GM Jeff Twohey. Twohey spent 29 seasons with the Petes, including the last 17 as general manager. Head coach Ken McRae and assistants Ryan Barnes and Joe Cirella didn’t have their contracts renewed.
April 7, 2010 – Petes hire Mike Oke as manager of player personnel.
May 6, 2010 – Petes hire former NHLer Dave Reid as Twohey’s successor as GM.
May 13, 2010 – Petes hire Mike Pelino as head coach, Jody Hull, Ron Tugnutt and Wayne Clark as assistants. Tugnutt is also named goaltending coach.
Nov. 8, 2010 – Star forward Ryan Spooner leaves the team and returns home to Ottawa after requesting a trade.
Nov. 11, 2010 – Spooner is traded to Kingston.
2010-2011 season – Petes finish ninth in the Eastern Conference, and second-last overall with a 20-45-1-2 record.
Jan. 9, 2012 – Star forward Austin Watson is traded to London after asking to be traded before the deadline.
2011-2012 season – The Petes finish ninth in the Eastern Conference and miss the playoffs for the second-consecutive year with a 27-34-3-4 record.
June 27, 2012 – Another prominent player, forward Matt Puempel, is traded to Kitchener after asking for a trade.
Oct. 4, 2012 – Slater Koekkoek speaks out, lamenting a negative attitude after a loss to Sudbury in the team’s fifth game and telling the Peterborough Examiner: “This is going to be the longest season ever if we continue like this.”
Oct. 9, 2012 – Petes fire GM Dave Reid. Hockey operations duties split between head coach Mike Pelino and director of player personnel Mike Oke.
Oct. 12, 2012 – Mike Oke named interim GM.
Dec. 20, 2012 – Petes fire head coach Mike Pelino after a disastrous start, going 8-23-3-1 in the first half. The team went 55-102-7-7 during Pelino’s tenure. Assistant coach Jody Hull takes over as interim head coach.
Jan. 10, 2012 – Petes trade captain Slater Koekkoek to Windsor, and forward Alan Quine to Belleville.
Feb. 14, 2013 – Petes remove interim tags from head coach Jody Hull and GM Mike Oke, extending both for two years.
March 12, 2013 – Petes defeat the Mississauga Steelheads 3-2 in a shootout to tie the Kingston Frontenacs for the eighth and final playoff spot in the OHL’s Eastern Conference.