There’s no place like home for the Barrie Colts.
The Sadlon Arena has basically been a sellout since Christmas, and the team can feel the buzz in the city after a successful regular season that has the Colts listed among the favourites to make a serious run at an OHL championship.
As they head into Thursday night’s Eastern Conference best-of-seven playoff series opener against the Niagara IceDogs, the Colts are raring to go.
“It’s great energy that it provides our players,” Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz said of the support. “Even outside the rink, I can only speak for myself, but I go to the gym, and I can’t get more than a second without someone coming to me and asking about the team. I go to breakfast at my local diner down the road from the house, and people are sitting down at my booth with my fiancé and asking me about the team. I go grocery shopping, and people are asking me if I can get them tickets.
“It’s a real tribute to how hard the guys have worked this year, and the success that we’ve had on the ice. The city is getting behind us, and we totally feed off that energy. We love it when the Sadlon is packed. We love it when our fans are right in that game. It’s a big help to us.”
That excitement is shared in the dressing room. The second-seeded and Central Division champion Colts (45-14-5-4) head into the opening-round battle against the seventh-seed IceDogs (32-30-4-2) as solid favourites.
“I think our whole group is,” said Barrie forward Brad Gardiner of the team’s anticipation to get things going. “Obviously, there’ve been lots of good personal achievements for everyone in the locker room this year, and we’re all super happy for that. The only thing missing in our inventory is a championship, and I think a lot of guys are looking forward to that.
“It’s just putting our heads down, noses down, and grinding it out and winning a championship.”
The division rivals, who also met in last year’s opening round, are quite familiar with one another, having faced each other six times already this season.
Smoskowitz and his staff have been busy preparing for the IceDogs since the matchup was determined last Wednesday, and he promises his team will be ready come puck drop tonight.
“To be honest with you, our coaches are so excited about the work that goes into preparing for a series that, whether you’ve seen this team eight times, six times, or even just two times, there’s not going to be anything left out of our preparation,” he said.
“It might help a little bit that we have a couple of more video clips just because we’ve been able to play these guys more times, but our (assistant coaches) were working so hard with the amount of meetings we’ve spent breaking down every little piece of the series, and any little advantage we can get has been covered.”
The Colts are facing a little adversity off that bat with co-captain Kashawn Aitcheson out for the opening two games of the series after receiving an automatic suspension for instigating a fight in a 3-2 overtime loss to Niagara in the regular season finale last Saturday.
Rookie Teague Vader is expected to get the start on the blueline with the New York Islanders prospect out.
“Any good team, or any good coach, always understands that there are going to be difficult obstacles you have to overcome to get where you want to go,” said Smoskowitz of being without his top defenceman. “Credit to our GM Marty Williamson for getting us a bunch of depth and making sure these guys know that it is the next man up mentality.
“Also, credit to our coaches. Guys who might not be getting into our lineup so often, or playing that many games, they’ve still been working hard . . . Anybody who goes in, of our 25 guys, is up to speed in terms of what the game plan is, what the goals are, and what their role will be. So, I’m looking forward to having 25 abled warriors ready to rock and roll for the playoffs.”
With a playoff run that has teams playing just about every other night, that strong depth will be a key for the Colts. As will their ability to make things tough on their opponents.
Smoskowitz loves how his team plays opponents hard, and how they bang and crash from the top line to the bottom line.
“We’ve been really happy with our third period this year because of the 60-minute investment that we make,” he said. “We wear teams down in the first, we wear teams down in the second. If we have a lead, it makes it really tough for teams to get back in it. If we are down and need to get some goals, it makes it tough for teams to defend because of the investment we’ve made.
“Now, you take a 60-minute game into a seven-game series. Maybe in Game 1, our opponents are fresh. Maybe Game 2, they’re fresh, but you better believe the bumps and bruises in Game 3 and 4, and all the way to Game 7, are going to start to come to the forefront. Our goal is to make it as hard as possible every single shift for any of our opponents.”
No one sets a better example of that than Cole Beaudoin. The Utah Mammoth prospect and co-captain is coming off his best season of junior hockey after leading the Colts with 33 goals and 88 points to finish tied for seventh overall with Peterborough’s Kieron Walton in league scoring.
Barrie will look to the Kanata native, who is expected to be among the favourites for this year’s Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player, to lead the way.
“He’s been a factor for us since he came into this league as a 16-year-old,” said Smoskowitz. “He’s never looked back, and all he’s done is get better and better each and every day. If I’m his opponent, he’s not someone I’d be looking forward to playing in a seven-game series, that’s for sure.”
While the Colts finished 29 points ahead of the IceDogs in the standings and won the season series 4-0-2-0, the games between the two teams were close. Five of the six games were decided by one goal.
None of that means anything now, says Gardiner. In the playoffs, everyone starts all even.
“No one cares, work harder,” the overage said of what Smoskowitz tells them in the locker room of previous achievements. “I think that’s going to be all of our mentality. We had a great regular season, but it’s about having marginal games and getting better and better every day.
“We’ve been good at doing that.”
While the IceDogs have struggled at times keeping the puck out of their net, they possess some solid weapons that can fill the net up front.
Former Colt and Vancouver Canucks prospect Riley Patterson led the team in scoring with 40 goals and 88 points, while Tampa Bay prospect Ethan Czata fired in a career-high 25 goals, and rookie Ryerson Edgar was sixth overall in rookie scoring with 23 goals and 49 points.
Niagara is also awaiting the return of forward Ryan Roobroeck, who has been out of the lineup since suffering a high-ankle sprain in London back on February 6th.
The top NHL prospect had 30 goals and 58 points in 49 games before getting injured.
“As long as hockey has been a game, guys who like to play with the puck on their stick, like to score goals, and like to make these high-end plays. The more time and space you give them, the more fun they’re going to have,” said Smoskowitz.
“Obviously, we’ve spoken about it. We’ve shown video, and we’re going to continue to work on how to shut these guys down, but at the end of the day, it’s just about playing guys hard and not giving them anything free.”
If they’re going to score, make them earn it, added Smoskowitz. He wants his team to focus on what they have to do to stop their opponents.
“If we’re going to make life easy on you by turning over pucks, or taking dump penalties, or not making you pay with our physicality, that’s on us,” he said. “We’re just worried about what we have to do to make life difficult on our opponents. That’s been our focus all year.”
Specialty teams are a key factor come playoff time, and the Colts hold an advantage in that department heading into their series.
The IceDogs finished second last overall on the power play (17 per cent efficiency), while the penalty kill was a league-worst (74.3 per cent).
Barrie’s power play was third overall, recording a franchise best 26.5 per cent efficiency.
“I’m hoping it’s going to be a big weapon for us in the playoffs,” said Smoskowitz.
The penalty kill was 11th at 78.1 per cent efficiency.
“Usually, in the playoffs, refs tend to put their whistles away a little bit, so I think discipline is going to be huge,” said Smoskowitz. “On penalty kill, our numbers really jump through the roof when we take three or fewer penalties per game, so we’re really focused on our discipline.
“If we play too hard or too physical, we can live with that. If we have to stop a scoring chance, we can live with that. It’s the plays that are after the whistle, or are unnecessary penalties, or the lazy penalties, or retaliatory penalties, we have no time for those.”
Goaltender Ben Hrebik will get the call to start Game 1. In last season’s playoffs, Sam Hillebrandt and Hrebik split the workload in the crease through the playoffs.
Barrie believes it has two starter crease warriors in Arvin Jaswal and Hrebik, though there’s no plan beyond Game 1 as to who will get the start.
Smoskowitz believes teams set themselves up for failure when they plan too far ahead. Barrie’s focus remains squarely on Game 1 on Thursday.
“Goaltending has been a strength of this team all season,” said the Colts’ bench boss. “We’re going to start Ben in Game 1 and see how it flows.”
Game 1 can’t come soon enough for the Barrie head coach. He loved what he saw when he arrived at the rink earlier this week. A team that’s raring to go.
“I feel great about our group,” he said. “I feel great about where our group is at. The guys came in (Monday), and it almost felt like a game day, which almost never happens on a Monday morning. The music was loud, and the vibes high. The guys were just so excited to get to the rink.
“I kind of wish Game 1 was tonight, because I think we would come out really hard. If we carry that energy and excitement into Game 1 on Thursday, I think it’s going to be a very good night for us.”
Puck drop for Game 1 on Thursday is 7 p.m. Game 2 is back in Barrie on Saturday night at 7:3o p.m.
TALE OF THE TAPE
REGULAR SEASON FINISH
Barrie – First in Central Division with 99 points
Niagara – 3rd in Central Division with 70 points
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Barrie - 4-0-2-0
GOALS FOR/GOALS AGAINST
Barrie – 246/194
Niagara – 211/253
TOP SCORERS
Barrie: Cole Beaudoin (33-55-88), Kashawn Aitcheson (28-42-70)
Niagara: Riley Patterson (40-44-84), Ryan Roobroeck (30-28-58)
SPECIALTY TEAMS
BARRIE
Power Play: 61 goals on 230 chances
Penalty Kill: 59 goals against on 269 chances
Shorthanded goals: 11
NIAGARA
Power Play: 44 goals on 259 chances
Penalty Kill: 63 goals against on 245 chances
Shorthanded goals: 10
GOALTENDING
Barrie:
Ben Hrebik: 43 GP, 2.81 GAA, .920 SV%
Arvin Jaswal: 24 GP, 2.45 GAA, .922 SV%
Niagara:
Vladislav Yermolenko: 45 GP, 3.50 GAA, .896 SV%
Charlie Roberson: 31 GP, 3.52 GAA, .886 SV%
PREDICTION
Colts in 5 games
