Forwards trickling again to Peterborough Petes lineup from the flu bug

There is light at the end of the tunnel for Peterborough Petes’ illness.

The Petes were hit by a flu outbreak amid seven grueling games in 11 days. Despite missing three defensemen in the first three games and six forwards in the fourth game, the Petes have so far been treading water with a 1-1-0-2 record.

And the news appeared to be improving as the Petes prepared to take on the Windsor Spitfires on Thursday night for a three-game-in-four-day road trip. They also visit the Flint Firebirds at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday and the Saginaw Spirit at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Petes head coach Rob Wilson said Thursday afternoon he expected JR Avon and Chase Stillman to return to the lineup against Windsor, with the chance Jax Dubois, Nick Lardis and Jonathan Melee could also return. They would be decisions at game time. The only two players unavailable are Zack Lewis and Quinton Page, who stayed behind at Peterborough due to illness, Wilson said.

This is the third consecutive season that the club has come through a prolonged illness.

In 2019-20 the club was struck by a virus in January 2020 which they now believe may have been COVID-19, although the pandemic had not yet been declared at the time. Last season, the club had to postpone a number of games as COVID-19 hit a large number of players and staff.

“I firmly believe in adversity. When you struggle through those things, you learn a lot about your team and I think we learned that these guys will compete and do the right things,” Wilson said.

“Last year was crazy,” he said. “It was crazy how many injuries we were hit with and COVID and all the rest. We were hit again but I can’t imagine it being like last year.”

Wilson was pleased with the team’s effort and willingness to embrace a different game plan to get through this stretch.

“We’re squeezing points. We got four points out of eight with a pretty broken team so it’s pretty impressive for these guys to come through like that. Hopefully we guys get back on this road trip.

“You don’t have a choice, so you try to get as much rest as possible. You try to play guys in certain positions. and save energy in your systems and structure and fight your way through day after day. That’s all you can do.”

mike.davies@peterboroughdaily.com

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