It was another rough weekend for the beleaguered Fergus Devils, as they were hammered by the league’s top two teams in the span of three nights.
Penetang handed the Devils an 8-2 beating last Friday night in Penetang, marking the second time the Kings had routed the Devils in less than a week. On Sunday night, the Alliston Hornets stopped into town and delivered an 8-2 beating of their own to the Devils.
At Penetang, the Devils traded early goals with the Kings. Ethan Jobb answered a Jacob Robitaille goal with one of his own at the 2:50 mark of the first. From that point on, Penetang exercised its dominance over Fergus - they scored twice in less than two minutes to make it 3-1, then added two more goals before the period was out to build a 5-1 lead.
Mitch Gelfand scored a powerplay goal in the second period, but the Kings answered with three more goals over the next 30 minutes of play to put the finishing touches on their victory.
Sean Little and Cole Giles added assists, while Brendan Moore took the loss in goal for Fergus (6 saves on 10 shots). Dave Bartolomucci came in to relieve Moore and stopped 23 of 27 shots.
In Fergus Sunday night, the script played out in nearly identical fashioin - Jesse Booker opened the scoring for the Devils, but the Hornets responded with two quick goals to take the lead. They tacked on three more before the period finished to seize control of the game for good.
Reid Zorzi scored a goal at the midway point of the second period to break up the Hornets’ eight-goal run. Dylan Cunningham, Jobb and Sion Jenkins added assists in the loss. Bartolomucci made 17 saves on 22 shots before being pulled but still took the loss. Moore made 28 saves on 31 shots in relief.
Following the game, Devils coach Eddy Gaffney said the weekend was more about getting practiced in a new system he and the other coaches installed rather than seeking wins. Not that he wasn’t hoping for a victory, unexpected as it might have been.
“These were the perfect teams to try our new systems against, and we’re hoping to have it down for when we play Erin (this weekend),” he said. “We need three wins from our last five games, but we’re really hoping to get four out of the five.”
With two games left against last-place Schomberg, a date in Erin and one more each with Stayner and Alliston, Gaffney is hoping the Devils will be ready for whomever they draw in the first round of the playoffs.
“The guys are believers in the system we’ve put in, and they felt the last one was too basic and they didn’t like it,” he said. “This will allow us to be more aggressive I think. I’ve said it before that I think we’ve got the team that can push anyone - we just have to put the work in.”
Fergus heads to Schomberg on Thursday, Jan. 28, and then to Erin on Saturday, Jan. 30. They come home for Sunday, Jan. 31 meeting against Alliston (a make-up game from earlier this season). Game time has been moved forward to 6 p.m. against the Hornets.