For Marty Williamson, it was pretty much straightforward why his Barrie Colts took it on the chin Friday night in Sudbury.
“They’re a good team over there and we didn’t play well, and that’s what happens,” said the Colts general manager and head coach after the Wolves pounded the Colts 13-4 at the Sudbury Community Arena. “It’s plain and simple.”
While the Wolves came into the game looking to secure home ice advantage in the final weekend of the OHL regular season, the Colts are locked in eighth spot in the Eastern Conference and with nothing to gain rested captain and leading scorer Beau Jelsma.
The Colts (27-36-4-0) looked like a team with nothing to play for in the standings and while they took a sound thrashing on this night, they’ll just put this one behind them and move on to Saturday night’s regular season finale at home against the Peterborough Petes before getting ready for the first round of the playoffs.
“No, we just move forward,” said Williamson when asked if they take anything from this loss. “Stay healthy, have a better effort at home and get ready for North Bay or Oshawa.”
Chris Grisolia, with a pair, Riley Patterson and Bode Stewart scored for Barrie, while Carter Lowe posted a career-high three points with three assists.
The Wolves scored five times in each of the first two periods and led 10-2 heading to the third thanks in large part to the play of their big guns.
OHL scoring leader David Goyette and top San Jose Sharks prospect Quentin Musty led the onslaught with two goals and four assists for six points each.
Kocha Delic (4G,1A) and Nick DeAngelis (5A) had five-point nights, while St. Louis Blues prospect Dalibor Dvorsky also had a big night with a hat trick and assist.
Lucas Di Giantommaso and Evan Konyen also scored for the Sudbury (37-22-4-3), which sits fifth in the conference, a point behind Brantford and three points behind Mississauga with two games remaining.
Adding to the interest of the game was not only the long-time rivalry between the two division rivals, but it was another meeting between the two after Sudbury forwards Nathan Villeneuve and Konyen were handed lengthy suspensions by the OHL for “inappropriate game-related comments” aimed at Colts defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson from a game back in mid-January.
Aitcheson faced the Wolves for the first time since the incident, while Konyen, who had his 10-game suspension reduced from 10 games to six games, was back for Sudbury.
Konyen glared at the Colts’ bench after his second period goal.
“You have to ignore it,” said Williamson of the antics. “We’ve beaten these guys for the last couple of years and they got the advantage this year. They got a real good team and there’s a lot of animosity between the two teams, but tip your hat to them. They won the game, and we just move on from it.
“We probably won’t see them again unless we compete in that second round.”
Sudbury had no issues running up the score.
“The game meant something to them, but I don’t know if it’s a message over the bounty or whatever,” added the Barrie head coach. “(Wolves head coach Ken MacKenzie) kept putting his first line out, every time we put our fourth line out and that’s just the way it goes.
“You got the privilege of change and if that’s how you want to react to it, that’s fine with us.”
It’s been a busy last month of the season as the Colts wrap up a stretch of seven games in the last 10 days against Peterborough on Saturday night.
“We’re obviously disappointed with tonight, but I’m proud of this team,” said Williamson. “We won some big games in this second half to allow us to get into the playoffs, otherwise this would be tooth and nail with Peterborough and Niagara. We all kind of sold and we were able to stay ahead of them and that was the whole goal with the three teams.
“Everybody else in the division bought and everybody else thinks they can win. It’s not our year as far as adding at the deadline and that, but I’m awfully proud of the team the way they played the second half.”
Oshawa locked up the East Division title Friday night with a 2-1 win in Kitchener, while North Bay clinched the Central Division title with a 5-4 win in Mississauga.
The Generals can lock up top spot in the conference and a first-round date with the Colts with a single point against Sudbury on Sunday or a loss by the Battalion on Sunday against the Petes.
“It will be one of those two teams that we’ll get, and we obviously have a history with North Bay. We know them well and Oshawa is a really good hockey team,” said Williamson. “When you finish in eighth, you’re not going to get an easy match-up.
“We know they’re both really good hockey teams and we’ll try and have a solid game tomorrow and get a game plan that gives us our best chance against those two teams.”
Game time Saturday at Sadlon Arena against the Petes is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Ben West got the start for Barrie and gave up seven goals on 25 shots before being pulled 6:54 into the second. Sam Hillebrandt gave up six goals on 20 shots the rest of the way. . . Patterson’s goal was his 29th and he now leads the rookie goal-scoring race by one goal over Niagara’s Ryan Roobroeck. Both players have one game remaining. With 62 points, Patterson is tied atop the rookie points lead with Brantford’s Jake O’Brien, who has two games remaining. . . Sudbury native Cole Dubowsky played his first OHL game in his hometown. . . Thomas Stewart had two assists for Barrie. . . David Goyette leads the OHL scoring race with 112 points and two games remaining. He is up by three points on North Bay’s Anthony Romani (109), who has one game left. . . Jakub Vondras stopped 25 of 29 shots to pick up the win in goal for Sudbury.
Banner image via Terry Wilson/OHL Images
