The former Penguin and career minor leaguer Toby Peterson leads the Oilers to a 5-4 win over Anaheim
Okay Penguin fans: Does anyone remember a 5ft9 left winger in Toby Peterson? Many fans most likely dont but Peterson was one of the Penguins top prospects heading into the 01-02 season. Peterson was giving a fair chance from the organization, playing with the big club for the whole season and even registered a hat trick against the Thrashers playing on Mario’s line. A week later after netting 6 goals in 5 games on Mario’s line Lemieux goes down with a hip injury and Peterson goes back to 4th line duty. Who knows maybe Peterson becomes the next Robby Brown. Once the 01-02 season ended Peterson fell out of favor with the organization and would end up playing the past 4 years including this year in the minors.
With Raffi Torres out with the flu the Oilers called up Peterson for Game 3 and guess what! Peterson scores the Oilers first goal in the first period to put the Oilers up 1-0. You know things are going well in Oil country when 1/3 of your team has flu like symptoms and the Oilers get a big time goal from a minor leaguer in Toby Peterson. Getting that first goal was the key to the game because it put the Mighty Ducks on their heel’s. The Oilers would go up 4-0 after getting goals from Peterson, Peca, Staios and Pronger. Give credit to the Mighty Ducks for storming a comeback to make it 4-3 but Pisani iced the game putting the Oilers up 5-3. The game ended up 5-4. The Stanley Cup playoffs are all about the role players and the Oilers have been getting contribution from role players night after night. Pisani who was a third liner most of the season is the teams leading goal scorer with 9 goals. As for Toby Peterson: i was big fan of his skill when he was with the Penguins and he showed tonight that if given a chance he may be able to contribute in the new NHL. Edmonton’s head coach Craig MCtavish said in his post game conference that Peterson was one of their best players tonight and that he should have given him more ice time then he did. Game 4 Thursday Night
Key stats – The Oilers are 6-1 at home during the Playoffs
Chris Pronger has been on the ice for 75% of Edmonton’s goals
