A frustrated Beau Jelsma had “missed the net” several times and told himself that was enough.
With time running out and his team trailing, the Barrie Colts veteran made sure his next shot didn’t miss.
Jelsma fired home the tying goal with just 53 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime and then Eduard Sale completed the comeback on a wicked move in the shootout to help the Colts rally for a 5-4 win over the Guelph Storm, Saturday night, at Sadlon Arena.
Jelsma, who had been on a tear coming into the contest with four goals and eight assists for 12 points over his last nine games, missed the net on a couple of previous chances in front, but he made good when Barrie (10-9) needed it the most.
With time running out, Riley Patterson fired a perfect pass from the far boards to Jelsma front and the centre ripped it over the right pad of Brayden Gillespie to help the Colts rally from their second two-goal deficit of the night.
Sale would seal the emotional comeback and Barrie’s fourth win in its last five games with the lone goal of the shootout on a beauty deke to his backhand before ripping it upstairs.
“I missed the net so many times today and I was just like, ‘Yeah, I just got to put her in and get her done,’” said Jelsma, who now has seven goals and 21 pts in 19 games this season. “It was a great pass from Patterson, and I just put that sucker in.”
Told of Jelsma’s comment that he wanted to put that “sucker in,” Williamson laughed before saying he wasn’t surprised one bit by his forward’s determination to come through.
“He’s such a competitive kid,” Williamson said. “He’s just such a great piece for us as a player and a teammate. He’s so coachable, so accountable. He’s just a real solid individual.”
Jelsma’s winner drew a huge roar from the crowd of 3,384 fans who seemed to appreciate the effort by a young club that had just lost top blueliner Beau Akey for the season to shoulder surgery and was also missing veteran forwards Jacob Frasca (hip) and Roenick Jodoin (upper body), along with defenceman Olivier Savard (puck in the mouth).
“We just gave it our all tonight,” said Jelsma. “Even the third period in Niagara (5-2 loss) the character on the guys was awesome. There was just no quit out of these guys tonight and we got rewarded for it.”
With a blue line starting three rookies, including Justin Handsor, who was making his OHL debut, and Evan Passmore, playing in just his fifth game, along with two second-year defenders, the Colts gave up plenty of quality scoring chances on this night, but never stopped battling.
“I really thought we played well five-on-five. I thought our game was solid,” said Williamson. “We give up those two shorthanded goals and it was kind of deflating I thought. I told them, I get mad at this team, and I’ll kick garbage cans when the lack of effort is there, but we made a couple of young mistakes and you got to learn from it. Don’t give up in the third, let’s go play our five-on-five and some good things happened. We got a power-play goal and a nice play at the end there to get a goal.
“They don’t give up. We were down 3-0 to the IceDogs and we came back in that game too, so I’m proud of the guys.”
Jake Karabela, with his first of two on the night, and Max Namestnikov gave Guelph (11-8-0-1) the early lead before Barrie got goals from Kashawn Aitcheson, on the power-play, and Jack Brauti 1:02 apart to tie the game late in the first.
Shorthanded goals by Leo Serlin and Karabela in the second restored Guelph’s two-goal lead, before Barrie went to work in the third.
Cole Beaudoin cut the lead to one on a power-play goal just 47 seconds into the third on a shot from the left faceoff dot that beat Gillespie between the pads.
“Credit to (associated coach Phillip Barski) too, he kind of rallied the power-play guys and we wanted to have Cobo shoot the puck more,” said Williamson. “We were messing up with our passes down low, so let’s just get the puck on net. What does Cobo do? He gets the puck on net and it kind of goes through the goalie and then we get the big play from Jelsma at the end.”
Overage goalie Ben West gave up a “shaky goal” early, but the veteran was the story later when he made several big stops in the third period to give his team the opportunity to rally and then saved his club with a couple of big-time stops in overtime.
“Those things are going to happen,” Jelsma said of the goal West easily stops on most nights. “We’re all not perfect, we make mistakes and it just trickled in on him. There was nothing he could do about it, but he was stellar for us.
“He made a lot of big saves in overtime, like the three-on-none, that was pretty awesome. I’m super happy for him. He was clutch tonight.”
Williamson was happy to see West’s teammates rally around him.
“Those are leadership-type wins for us, when we get guys rallying for each other,” he said. “We talked about the soft goal and let’s get back at them. We scored the two goals in that period to get it 2-2, so (the weak goal) was kind of forgotten about in the first.”
The Colts short home stand continues Thursday night when they host the Owen Sound Attack at 7 p.m. before returning to the Sadlon Arena on Saturday to face the London Knights at 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Akey is set to have shoulder surgery over the next two weeks, which will allow the Edmonton Oilers prospect to have a full summer of rehab and be ready for the start of next season. . . Savard had major dental work done after taking a puck in the mouth Thursday against Niagara, while Jodoin was injured after taking a big hit in the same game. “Hope for Savard, but we got to see on Monday or Tuesday,” Williamson said of the possibility of him playing next weekend. “Jodoin is a possibility too.” . . . Both teams had 32 shots. . . Barrie finished 2-for-7 on the power play, while Guelph was 0-for-2. . . Sale also had three assists on the night and now has points in his last five games. He has four goals and seven assists in the last eight games. . . Connor Punnett had two assists and now is sixth overall in scoring among OHL defencemen with four goals and 20 points. . . The Colts have given up five shorthanded goals this season, only Windsor (seven) and Kingston (6) have given up more.
Banner image via Terry Wilson/OHL Images
