THUNDER BAY – Giovanni Petraglia called the Thunder Bay Chill’s recent four-game losing streak the darkest period of his coaching career.
It’s left the Premier Development League team in virtual must-win territory the rest of the way, likely needing to win seven of its final eight games to make the playoffs for the 11th time in 12 seasons. They took the first steps on Friday night, building a 3-0 halftime lead over visiting WSA Winnipeg and went on to a 4-1 win, after subbing out a handful of starters with the game well in hand.
It wasn’t only the three points that mattered, said Petraglia, but the way they got them. With nagging injuries plaguing the team, the veteran bench boss wanted a chance to rest as many players as possible to ensure the Chill hit next weekend’s all-important road trip to St. Louis and Chicago as healthy as possible.
“The priority is we want to win tomorrow and that’s all we want to think about,” said Petraglia of Saturday’s rematch with the 0-10-0 squad from Winnipeg.
“Of course the injury situation has to get better or else next weekend going on the road with too many injuries the situation is going to be too hard to turn over. But tomorrow is the only game we’re looking for and tomorrow we need to win.”
Sullivan Silva, who scored in the 33rd and 39th minute to build the Chill lead to three, said the team’s 2-4-0 start wasn’t according to plan, but they know what they need to do going forward.
“It was a little bit hard losing all those four games, and it’s important we got this victory today to get back on track. It was a very good performance in the first half. In the second half we slowed down a little bit,” Silva said.
“But like Gio said it’s just halfway to the goal for this week. Tomorrow we have another important game again and we must be ready for it.”
Getting early goals was important, Silva said.
The Chill opened the scoring in the 31st, Sergio (Sota) Campano firing a low shot that beat Winnipeg keeper Evan Barker, and quickly piled onto their lead.
“It gave us the confidence that we needed and then later we just started managing the game and we started to take care of the players that are injured right now to be ready for the rest of the season,” said Silva, who exited early in the second half, after feeding Campano on a two-on-one for the Chill’s final goal of the night.
Rinor Hoxha beat Connor Vande Weghe on a low shot in the 83rd for Winnipeg, the Thunder Bay keeper taking over from starter Matthew Moxinsky at halftime.
The victory jumped the Chill past the St. Louis Lions into fourth place in the Central Conference’s Heartland Division, four points behind third-place Kaw Valley with two games in hand. Chicago, who have played one more game than Thunder Bay, are six ahead of the Chill in second, with everyone chasing the 9-0-0 Des Moines Menace for the division lead.
Game time Saturday night at Fort William Stadium is 7:30 p.m.
