The Gillespie's Tree Service U15 Red Devils started up the second half of their regular season over the weekend with a pair of games.
The Peterborough Petes came to town on Saturday afternoon for the second meeting of the year between the teams. A short staffed squad took the ice on a mission to gain some ground on one of the few teams they are looking to catch in the standings. A tight checking game saw a scoreless first period for both teams before Trent Clow forced a turnover along the boards and buried the opening goal to put the Red Devils up 1-0. Before the end of the second frame John Korver would bang home a Jack Sutton rebound to go up 2-0. That was all the offence QRD would need to bring home a 2-1 win.
Sunday saw a road trip to Markham to take on the Waxers in the second game between these teams as well. Lawson Minifie got the party started finishing off some nice passing from Jax Martin and Andrew Dewar to put QRD up 1-0. Trent Clow was next on the scoresheet banging in a rebound off a point shot from Dewar. Minifie also picked up a helper on that goal. Markham also potted 2 goals in the first to send the game to the break tied, but that is as close as they would get as the Quinte offence kicked into high gear. Martin batted home a loose puck on a 5 on 3 powerplay to put QRD up 3-2 after 2 periods. Minifie snuck behind the Markham defense and took a long bank pass from Dewar to add a 4th goal to the Devils tally early in the third and Ewan Dahle added the finishing touches burying a Markham turnover to make the final 5-2 QRD. Nathan Ferriss was the backstop both games this weekend as QRD picked up a much needed 4 out of 4 points and climbed back up to 3rd in the standings.
This week sees a pair of home contests as Wednesday evening they host Central Ontario and Saturday sees York Simcoe come to town for the rubber match in that season series. Wednesday night's action starts up at 8:30 on the CAA pad and Saturday afternoon sees a 5:45 puck drop on the Mackay pad at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.