The losses keep piling up for the struggling Barrie Colts and Riley Patterson believes it’s time he and his teammates take a long look in the mirror and figure out a way to get things turned around.
The introspection follows another dismal effort against one of the OHL’s bottom teams, this one a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the North Bay Battalion, Thursday night, at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The loss was the fifth straight for Barrie (24-14-1-1), including three of them to teams sitting at the bottom of the OHL standings.
“I don’t think we’re playing the way we can,” said veteran forward Patterson. “It’s a little frustrating losing five in a row and I don’t think any team wants to do that no matter where you are in the standings.
“Being the team we are, it’s a bit more frustrating. We got to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure it out.”
The season-long losing streak is difficult to figure out for a club that has been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference standings all season long.
Yet in the last two weeks, the club has played its worst stretch of hockey in games they should be winning.
“Everybody can beat anybody in this league if you don’t come and play properly,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “We’re just off our game right now and I don’t know when we’re going to get it back.”
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It was only a couple of weeks ago on New Year’s Eve that the Colts, with four of their top players away at worlds, defeated the East Division-leading Oshawa Generals 7-4 with a high-paced effort.
It was their third win in three games against the defending Eastern Conference champions this season. This season, the Colts boast a 12-4 record against the top six teams in the conference.
That kind of dominance and jump wasn’t anywhere to be found on Thursday against the rebuilding Battalion (16-20-3-0).
“We got to get back to what was working like in the Oshawa game and before,” said Patterson of the sudden change. “We had a good stretch there and got away from it. We realize that and it’s going to take a lot of work and grinding to get back to it.
“I think everyone in the room does believe that we can get back to it. We have a lot of high-end talent and a lot of high-end players on this team that if we all buy-in we can turn this ship around and go in the right direction.”
The Colts haven’t looked anything like a contending team of late.
“We’re just fragile right now and we’re off our game,” said Williamson. “It seems like everything is an uphill climb for us.”
In North Bay, the Colts seldom completed passes and managed just 22 shots on Mike McIvor in being shutout. During the five-game skid, they have scored just six times.
They’re simply not generating any scoring chances. Goaltender Sam Hillebrandt was stellar again and kept them in the game, but he got no offensive support.
“It’s not a lot of goals and it’s hard to win games when you can’t score,” said Patterson. “Our goalies are doing as much as they can. We got to help them out by finishing our chances. We just have to continue to work on our goalscoring and forecheck, and that comes with our transition and, like I said, our forecheck.
“If we do all that, goals will start coming.”
The former Colts did all the damage in this one. Zach Wigle buried his own rebound after a deflection in front for the winner early in the second period and then Shamar Moses iced it with an empty-net marker with 1:23 remaining.
“We’re getting outworked and outbattled and I can’t put my finger on combinations that are going to work for us,” said Williamson who had a full lineup for the first time all season. “We’re struggling.”
The weekend ahead doesn’t get any easier for the Colts. They return home Saturday night to face the Windsor Spitfires, who are tied with the London Knights atop the OHL standings, and then travel to St. Catharines on Sunday afternoon to take on the Niagara IceDogs, who sit three points ahead of Barrie atop the Central Division standings.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Williamson of the weekend schedule. “We’re at home and we got to figure a way to dig ourselves out of a hole.”
Barrie could find itself as low as sixth in the conference standings by the end of this weekend.
“We’re trying not to focus on that,” said Patterson. “That’s just outside news for all of us that we can’t focus on right now. We got to look at our group and the people in this dressing room and figure it out.”
Game time Saturday night at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: With assistant coach Dennis Martindale away from the team, analytics analyst Doug Marshall stepped behind the bench. Marshall was behind the bench three seasons ago for a brief period. . . Thursday night’s contest marked the Colts’ debut for Anthony Romani and the first time he and linemate Owen Van Steensel have faced North Bay since the trade deadline deal that brought them to Barrie. . . Former Colts’ fifth overall pick Parker Vaughan got in a fight with Michael Derbidge. . . It’s been a rough go of late for both Kashawn Aitcheson and Beau Akey on the back end. Aitcheson is a minus-nine over the five-game losing streak, while Akey is a minus-five. . . Game time Sunday against Niagara at the Meridian Centre is 2 p.m.
