A late offensive push wasn’t enough to erase a rough second period for the Barrie Colts Thursday night in St. Catharines.
Eduard Sale and Carter Lowe scored 40 seconds apart with a little more than seven minutes remaining to get Barrie within a goal, but the host Niagara IceDogs hung on for a 5-2 win to snap their six-game losing streak at the Meridian Centre.
After a scoreless first, Niagara (4-9-4-1) got all the offence they needed in the second on goals by Gavin Bryant, Mike Levin, and a short-handed marker by Michael Podolioukh, with just 48 seconds remaining in the period, to take control.
It didn’t help the Colts (9-9), who were outshot 14-4 in the middle frame, were missing two of their top-four blueliners with Kashawn Aitcheson serving 27 minutes in penalties after a late first-period fight and Olivier Savard out of the game after taking a puck to his mouth.
“We took a couple of injuries there and had four defencemen and kind of lost our energy and a couple of bad things happened,” said Colts head coach Marty Williamson, who also lost forward Roenick Jodoin in the second after taking a big hit from Niagara’s Daniil Sobolev.
“Overall, I liked our first period and, obviously, I liked our third period, but one period in this league can make the hill a bit high and that’s what we went through.”
The Colts gave themselves an opportunity when they cut the lead to 3-2, but it proved too little, too late.
Empty-net goals by Kevin He and Ryan Roobroeck sealed it and gave Niagara just its second win on home ice this season.
“We didn’t have the start we wanted,” said centre Beau Jelsma, who set up Lowe’s second goal of the season. “A lot of things weren’t going right for us, we had too many turnovers. I’m proud of the boys, we battled back in the third, but we came up short.
“It’s a good learning curve for us. We got to start games on time and be ready to play.”
Barrie had three good chances to tie the game late, including a huge pad save by Niagara goalie Owen Flores on Chris Grisolia, who was right on the doorstep.
“We had a couple of looks and that’s what you want to do in those kinds of situations is get a good look and we just couldn’t quite do it,” said Williamson. “Even the one that went to Sale that got blocked and we had a couple of guys at the side of the net and just a lucky break there and a different kind of puck placement, we might have pulled out a point or two.
“That’s kind of youth though, especially in that second period. We lost Aitcheson and lost Jodoin, and then lost Savard and the momentum kind of went away from us. It picked up for them, and it took us to the end of the period to get it back.”
The Colts managed just four shots in the second and spent most of the second on their heels. They’ll need to be better Saturday night when they host the Guelph Storm.
“We just got to keep getting shots to the net. We didn’t have a great second period at all,” said Jelsma. “Losing Aitcheson with the penalty and Savard with the puck to the face, obviously it hurt us, but we had to be better defensively and it kind of caught up to us.”
The win for Niagara was the first for head coach Ben Boudreau. The son of former NHL coach Bruce Boudreau replaced Ryan Kuwabara who was fired last Friday.
“I thought they played a good game,” Williamson said of a fired-up Niagara team playing for its new coach. “I thought they were much safer than we played them in the past. You got to play three periods of hockey with anybody in this league.
“We were not good enough and dug ourselves too big a hole.”
Already missing Edmonton Oilers prospect Beau Akey on the point and overage forward Jacob Frasca to injuries, the Colts could be without both Savard and Jodoin against the Storm on Saturday.
“He got a puck in the teeth, and they’re all kind of rearranged,” Williamson said of Savard.
“Savard is going to see a dentist, and we’ll see what happens with Jodoin. I don’t know. He might need the weekend.”
Williamson thought his club might have pulled this one out late.
“I thought our whole final 12 minutes was really good,” he said. “We got the couple of goals, and we kept pushing, and we had good speed away from the puck. A lot of good things. The urgency went up.
“We were close there. I thought we were going to get the one in, but it didn’t work out.”
The Colts will regroup Friday with a “quick little practice.” Game time Saturday at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
Jelsma is hoping to get the same boost from hometown fans they got in last Saturday’s 4-2 win over North Bay.
Barrie drew its largest crowd of the season with 3,977 fans.
“Saturday night, that was awesome with the crowd,” said Jelsma. “I’ve been here for three years, and that crowd was bumping on Saturday night. It gave us the energy and I hope it’s like that this Saturday too.
“We’re going to be looking for a win, so we’re excited for Saturday.”
ICE CHIPS: With the assist, Jelsma now has four goals and eight assists for 12 points in his last nine games. “At the end of the day, I’m a super competitive person and I just want to win,” said the assistant captain. “That’s all that’s on my mind during a game. I just want to win the game and if points come with that, then they do. But at the end of the day, I just want to win.” . . . Aitcheson returned to the bench at the start of the second, but soon left after realizing he had earned a second 10-minute misconduct during his first-period fight with Sobolev. “We didn’t realize they gave him two misconducts. They gave him a 10-minute misconduct for instigating and then gave him a 10-minute misconduct because they said his jersey came up and over, so they doubled up,” said Williamson. . . Niagara outshot Barrie 32-30. . . Sam Hillebrandt made his third-straight start in goal for Barrie. . . With Jodoin likely to miss Saturday, Williamson said rookie Jaiden Newton will take his place. The Colts will have five healthy defencemen on the roster if Savard misses Saturday. . . Sale now has points (4G, 4A) in six of his last seven games.
