It’s been over eight years since the Barrie Colts have won a game in London.
The OHL’s hottest team put that streak to rest on Friday night.
Joe Salandra scored twice, and Brad Gardiner added a shorthanded goal and assist, to help the Colts reel off their ninth-straight win with a convincing 5-1 conquest of the Knights in front of 9,061 fans at Canada Life Place
The last time Barrie (39-11-2-4) returned home from the Forest City with a win was back on February 2, 2018, when Ryan Suzuki scored twice, and Andrei Svechnikov added a goal and assist in an 8-4 drubbing of the Knights.
The rink has been a host to numerous powerhouse London teams over the last decade.
“It’s a really tough building (to win in),” said Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “I was telling the guys before the game, in my three previous trips here as a coach, there were some pretty stacked teams. It always seemed like a daunting task.
“Then you get here again, and there’s 9,000 screaming people, and the two bowls. It’s a pretty serious rink, but our guys did a pretty good job of controlling their emotions and taking the crowd out of the game. I was very proud of them tonight.”
The win over the Knights (32-19-4-1) also helped the Colts continue their impressive second-half run of 20-1-1-0 since the Christmas break.
“These are professional coaches. Their players are going to be playing professional hockey. It’s a hard league to get wins out of,” said Smoskowitz of the two-month-long hot streak. “For these guys to do it on a nightly basis and to find different ways (is impressive). Sometimes it’s the power play, some nights it’s the penalty kill. Some nights, it’s our older superstar players, and some nights, it’s our depth players. These guys find ways.
“I just can’t speak enough to our leadership group. Kashawn Aitcheson, Cole Beaudoin, these guys are ready on a daily basis, and it’s 24 strong right now.”
Nicholas Desiderio and Calvin Crombie also scored for the Colts, who reeled off three-straight goals a little more than six minutes apart in the first period after Ryan Cook opened the scoring for London at 3:05 to grab control of this one early.
It was the second period, and more specifically the Barrie penalty kill, that proved to be the difference maker on this night.
The specialty-teams unit killed off five straight London power plays, including a two-man advantage, to help Barrie hang on to its 3-1 lead.
Despite playing half the period with the man advantage, the Knights only managed to outshoot the Colts 8-3 in the period.
“It was outstanding,” Smoskowitz said of the Barrie’s penalty killing unit, which held London scoreless on six opportunities with the man advantage. “It’s never a thing where you want to take that many consecutive penalties like that, but credit to (assistant coach) Patty Sexton, who did a lot of pre-scouting on these guys, and our penalty kill really came through.
“There were some big, blocked shots, and some good clears. It was really good to see.”
The Knights pressed hard to start the third, but despite dominating possession and spending a good amount of time in the Colts’ end, they were kept mostly to the outside and had few good scoring chances on goaltender Arvin Jaswal.
Barrie, which outshot London 24-20 in the contest, actually held London to just five shots in the final frame.
“I was really happy with that,” said Smoskowitz of the defensive effort. “If you look at the time of possession and offensive zone time, it heavily favoured them tonight. We limited that team to 20 shots.
“I thought we had good stick detail. I thought we blocked a lot of key shots. The ones that did get through, Arvin was fantastic for us again. He was a rock for us back there.
“It was a really solid defensive effort tonight.”
Salandra put this one away when he scored a pair of late goals less than four minutes apart. The rookie winger now has three goals in the last two games and 11 on the season.
“He is a natural goal scorer,” Smoskowitz said of Salandra. “That guy buries pucks for a living, and he’s going to do it at a high level as well.”
Smoskowitz also liked the start by his club in this one. While he didn’t like the mistake that led to the Cook goal, he did like the response.
“It was big for us to get that first one back,” he said. “We didn’t like that goal against, but it was big for us to get it back, and for the guys to keep pushing. It’s a tough building. You get down by one or two, and all of a sudden, the crowd gets into it, and they fuel momentum off of that.
“It was good for us to shut that down. That was ideal for us tonight.”
UP NEXT
The Colts can move into a tie atop the Eastern Conference standings with the Brantford Bulldogs when they wrap a busy three-in-three weekend Saturday night against the OHL championship favourites at Sadlon Arena.
The Colts will look to atone for a 7-1 drubbing at the hands of the Bulldogs late last month. The conference leaders will be well rested after having a couple of days off.
“Three-in-threes are always hard, especially the travel between (cities),” said Smoskowitz. “It’s something our guys always prepare for. They work extremely hard during the week with their off-ice workouts. We push them hard on the ice.
“Their bodies are ready for it. I’m really looking forward to (Saturday) night’s game.”
Meanwhile, the Knights will stay at home for a matinée against Sudbury on Sunday.
ICE CHIPS
Forward Jaiden Newton left the game in the third and didn’t return.
Smoskowitz got another big effort from his depth players. “It’s two nights in a row that the bottom six really came through for us, and that’s what I love so much about this team,” said the Barrie bench boss. “We don’t care who gets it done for us. . . as long as, at the end of the night, we get more on the board than they do and we get to take home the two points.”
Rookie forward Eamon Edgar had two assists and was a force all night. “I was really, really impressed with Eamon Edgar tonight,” said Smoskowitz. “Our only 16-year-old, playing in front of a big crowd like this, and to go in there and win some battles, and get some really important assists for us, was impressive.”
Jaswal has now won 10-straight starts in goal and has a 14-3-0-1 record on the season.
It's the first time Barrie has won at least nine straight games since the franchise-best 22-game win streak from Oct. 24, 2009 to Dec. 29, 2009.
ADD. OHL
Peterborough 4 Brampton 1
Oshawa 4 Erie 3 (OT)
Kitchener 3 Windsor 0
Ottawa 7 Niagara 1
Kingston 5 North Bay 1
Sault Ste. Marie 6 Sarnia 3
