The Barrie Colts seem to be battling injuries and sickness these days as much as they're battling their opponents.
It's not going well on either front.
Ethan Cardwell was the latest to find sick bay as a flu-ridden Colts team took it on the chin Friday night in a 9-3 loss to the Kingston Frontenacs at Leon's Centre.
Martin Chromiak recorded a hat trick and added an assist and Shane Wright and Francesco Arcuri each scored twice to lead a Kingston attack that broke the game wide open with four goals in each of the final two periods.
Zayde Wisdom and Lucas Edmonds, who also added three assists for a four-point night, also scored for the Frontenacs (38-20-4-1), who moved a point ahead of the Mississauga Steelheads and into third place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Declan McDonnell, Connor Punnett and Tai York scored for the Colts (33-23-6-1), who remain seven points behind Mississauga in the race for home ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
Matteo Lalama gave up seven goals on 26 shots in the Barrie net before being pulled for rookie Nolan Chartrand at 4:16 of the third period.
"We had energy, but we had a couple of guys sick on the bus and we're just fighting a flu bug right now and it just seems it's got us off-kilter a little bit," said Colts head coach Marty Williamson. "We're going to try and get healthy. We got a lot of these games going back-to-back.
"We're going to have to call up some guys (Saturday) to get through these last few games."
Williamson was the coaching the game with a heavy heart after his father, Paul Williamson, passed away on Thursday.
The Barrie bench boss said his hero inspired him and was someone who was always in his corner.
"Everybody thinks the same of their dad. My dad was a wonderful guy," Williamson said. "He loved hockey. He loved watching me when I played, loved watching me when I coached. He was just a great mentor and I'll miss him a ton."
Cardwell joined injured veterans Mack Guzda, Jacob Frasca and Ryan Del Monte on the sidelines.
Evan Vierling, Oliver Smith, Hunter Haight, Cooper Matthews and Artur Cholach have also missed time in the last few weeks.
Facing a potent Frontenacs offence that sits fifth in the OHL in goals scored and is led by the NHL's top prospect in Wright is no easy task for a team struggling to stay healthy.
"Can't get the lineup together and it shows," said Williamson, whose club has lost three straight now. "They ran their top two lines at us and we just didn't have an answer at times."
Down 3-0 early in the second period, McDonnell, on the power play, and Punnett scored three minutes apart to get Barrie within one.
Edmonds and Wisdom would score less than three minutes later to squash any kind of Barrie momentum.
"Control what you can control," said Williamson. "I thought our guys were trying to do too much out there. We didn't really have an energy problem. We got behind by a couple of goals and we got defencemen pressing up, we got forwards hanging in extra seconds trying to make something happen and it just doesn't work that way.
"We got to realize North Bay can do the same that Kingston did here."
Williamson believes his team will be much better Saturday night when they host the Battalion at Sadlon Arena.
"This is one you got to wash away," he said. "We'll regroup and I think we'll be a good team (Saturday). That's the way you got to look at it."
Game time tonight versus the Battalion is 7:30 p.m.ICE CHIPS: The Colts wrap their three-in-three weekend Sunday afternoon in Peterborough. . . Kingston outshot Barrie 34-28. . . The two teams have split four games this season. . . Kingston has five 30-plus scorers in Jordan Frasca (42), Chromiak (41), Edmonds (32), Arcuri (32) and Wright (30).
Feature image via Terry Wilson - OHL Images
