The Port Hope Predators made it back into the win column Sunday night when they defeated the Trenton Hercs 7-4 at the Jack Burger Sports Complex, thanks to Capt. Jeremy McCarty’s five goals.

Predators head coach Brendan O’Grady was doing a little bit of line shuffling, and broke up the tandem of McCarty and sniper Tyler Miller. St. Michael’s Majors callup Anthony Tapper, who had a weekend stint with the big club, returned Sunday night and was integral in McCarty’s busy night.

McCarty opened the scoring, from Tapper and Dave Williams at 5:35 of the first period. He then added another goal, this one unassisted, at 8:49.

Travis Savard had a power-play tally at 14:30 from Miller and Vincent Masters to give Port Hope a 3-0 lead before Trenton replied at 15:56, scoring on new Predators netminder Ryan Fitzsimmons.

In the second, McCarty and Miller combined for an early power-play goal at 2:02, as the hosts were three for six with the man advantage. The Hercs responded with their own power-play goal at 5:23. They added another marker at 11 minutes even to get within one of Port Hope, but Tapper had McCarty’s number, and fed him another pass to put the Preds up 5-3 at 12:45 to close out the second-period scoring.

The third period opened with McCarty scoring early again, at 1:50, again from Tapper. Trenton landed another power-play tally at 2:58, but it wasn’t enough.

Tapper closed out the scoring with the man advantage from Williams and Miller at 10:24.

McCarty had a combination of reasons for his glittering performance. “Well,” he said, holding his brand new puppy, “I just felt good all day. My new line really accents my play, and it was a good night. My shots were just all going in.”

A little while ago, McCarty talked about how getting quality shots is important. Taking a million shots doesn’t matter if the goalie can see them all.

“Three of the five goals tonight, the goalie didn’t see the puck at all, and the other two I just got a little lucky. At practice this week, I was picking my shots, not just throwing them on net. The last little while, I’ve been focusing more on reading the play instead of just trying to get to the net. I’ve been thinking more offensively in their end as opposed to just keeping the puck in.”

While McCarty said he didn’t know he was going to have such a great night before the game, he did say “whenever I’m feeling kind of sluggish in warmup, I know I’m going to have a good game. I can get comfortable, so by the time the game starts, I feel perfect. If I come out flying in warmup, I know I’m going to have a bad game.”

Before the game, McCarty said, “I just took the pup for a walk, and had a good meal. Nothing special, really.”

Port Hope’s last few games have been against teams in other divisions, with which the Predators had no familiarity or rivalry. Coming back home for a big game against another Ruddock Division team the Preds consider rivals is always a great way to get everyone pumped up and out of a slump.

“Trenton has guys that have been there as long as me, and there’s guys that like to go after me, and guys I like to go after,” McCarty said.

Scoring a lot of goals as the captain is a surefire way to get everyone else excited, as well. McCarty said “it’s not just me (who gets excited) it’s all the team leaders, when we score, we show emotion, and (it) gets the team going. When you really celebrate, and jump in the bench instead of just kinda skating by giving a couple of fist pumps and that’s it.”

Scoring was a little bit of a problem for Port Hope a few weeks ago, as they mustered only two goals in two games, which they lost by identical 2-1 scores. “Those games, we couldn’t get anything going, so tonight (Sunday) I felt really good, and it was really overdue,” McCarty said.

Earlier this season, he said his goal was to stay in the top 10 of league scorers. While it did look like he was on the outs for a week or so, he’ll be right back in the scoring race. “Splitting up the lines really helped even out the scoring, and made everyone go.”

He said he has not scored five goals in a game since minor midget, but wasn’t sure if it was a Predator team record or not. “I was surprised because I felt so good. I was just in the right spot.”

After a substantial losing skid, the team was feeling a little down. On the team’s behalf, McCarty said, “The last five games we lost, everyone was so down, so this was really good for morale. The plan now is to come up in the standings as much as we can, but all that really matters is playoffs, so we want to get as finely tuned as we can for playoffs.”

The Predators sit fifth in the Ruddock Division with 22 points. Ajax also has 22 points but have played two fewer games than Port Hope.

With more cross-over games (against teams in other divisions) on the horizon, including last night’s 4-3 win over the Jr. Sabres in Buffalo, N.Y., and tonight’s game in Parry Sound, the Preds’ routine is a little mixed up for the month of November.

“Well, everyone’s pretty excited for the Buffalo trip — we get to go to a different country, and we’re going to the mall first. Parry Sound will be a pain, because you get in a routine and then that messes it up, but at this level you have to take what comes and work with whatever happens. We have a good group of guys, though, and everyone has their own rituals; hockey players are superstitious,” McCarty said.

Mondays are normally the Preds’ day off, but they’ll keep going with their normal practice schedule this week, and head into Trenton Friday night. Trenton plays tonight, as well, so Port Hope will be hoping to capitalize on the Hercs’ fatigue.

“We know what it takes to beat them. If we don’t play well, any team can beat us, though.”