Attack hand Colts a fourth-straight loss

The Barrie Colts just didn’t have it on Thursday night.

Battling a flu bug that hit a sizeable portion of the team over the last 10 days and facing a determined Owen Sound Attack team fighting to make the playoffs, the Colts were run over 5-1 at Sadlon Arena.

While Barrie dressed most of its regular lineup after missing six players in a 6-4 loss in Kingston on Tuesday night, they struggled to keep up with an Attack team that was going hard from the drop of the puck.

There will be no rest for the weary. Barrie (33-17-2-2) plays Friday night in Kitchener and then returns home Saturday night to finish off a busy three-in-three weekend against the Peterborough Petes.

“I feel for these guys,” Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson, who also returned after missing Tuesday’s game with the bug, said of his team. “Teams are hungry to make the playoffs and we’re just not feeling real good right now. It’s going to be a tough weekend. We got to get through it and, hopefully, most of our guys are on the upswing right now and starting to feel a little better.

“We just got to be careful not to run them into the ground this weekend and set ourselves back a little bit. Hopefully, we can get through the weekend, get a couple of wins, and then just get ourselves healthy.”

Cole Beaudoin put the home side on top at 9:08 of the first period, but it was as good as it would get for the Colts on this night.

A little more than a minute later, Pierce Mbuyi, with his 13^th goal in the last 11 games, and Landen Hookey scored 1:14 apart and Owen Sound (19-29-4-3) never looked back en route to handing Barrie its fourth-straight loss.

“It was not a good game by us,” said Beaudoin. “We got to do better. We got a three-in-three this weekend, so we got to forget about that one and get ready and do what we got to do to get ready for Kitchener (Friday) and get two points.

“We had some guys out, but we had the guys back in the lineup tonight so there’s no excuses. We got to be better.”

Barrie natives Cole Zurawski and Jake Crawford, along with Tristan Delisle also scored for the Attack, who got a solid performance in goal by Carter George to move one point ahead of the Ottawa 67’s in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Sam Hillebrandt was a little shaky early, but the Barrie goaltender had little help over the final 40 minutes.

“They played well. They’re trying to make the playoffs,” said Williamson. “You got different battles. We’re trying to make first place and we’re starting to slide a little bit now and they’re trying to make the playoffs and advancing themselves.

“I just thought it was a weird game. Our goaltending has been good all year, and this was kind of an off night for goaltending. With the health of our team right now, we just can’t afford that. It made the hill tough, but when you only get one (goal) it makes it tough to win a lot of games and we’re putting that on Sammy.”

Led by the top line of Delisle, Hookey, and Mbuyi, who combined for three goals and six points on the night, Owen Sound carried the play for most of the contest.

“We left Sammy out to dry tonight, so we got to be better,” said Beaudoin.

With 14 games remaining on the schedule for most teams, the push is on. Beaudoin believes you can’t take the foot off the pedal no matter who you’re facing.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, whether it’s a top team or bottom team, every team is competing for the playoffs right now,” said the top Utah NHL prospect who has three goals and seven points over his last seven games. “It’s the last couple of games here, so everyone is going to give us their all. We got to give them our all and it’s going to be a battle every single night.

“We got so much skill and work ethic on this team that we should be coming away with two points and at least give our best effort, and I thought tonight wasn’t it.”

Things won’t get any easier tonight when they face a Kitchener squad that sits second overall in the OHL standings. The Colts haven’t beaten the Rangers since a 6-4 win back on March 6, 2020.

To do that, they’ll have to get back to playing the strong defensive game that has led them to the top of the Central Division standings.

“That’s going to be the message to our guys. Simplify our game and get pucks deep,” said Williamson. “There are still too many odd-man rushes out there. We have offensive players, but unless you’re playing at the top and you can stop and start and have high energy, it doesn’t matter.

“We got to get our game back. We had an identity as one of the best defensive teams in the league and I just don’t think we’re playing to it anymore.”  

The Colts, said Beaudoin, didn’t play their game Thursday night.

“The (Kitchener Memorial Auditorium’s) going to be going and their fans are going to be going, but we need to cancel that noise out and we need to play our game,” said the Barrie veteran. “We’re getting away from that. We need to continue to move our feet and play good offensively.

“I think that’s our identity, is play defence first, and we’re kind of getting away from that. We shouldn’t be letting them get five on us tonight, so we got to play to our identity.”

Game time Friday night in Kitchener is 7 p.m.

ICE CHIPS: Beau Jelsma, Beau Akey, Emil Hemming, and Riley Patterson all returned to the lineup after missing the game in Kingston. . . Grayson Tiller played his 200^th OHL game on his 20^th birthday on Thursday. . . Hookey now has a career-high 30 goals and has found the back of the net 11 times in his last nine games. . . Jelsma (plus 1) was the only Colt to finish on the positive side in plus/minus on the night. . .The two teams will meet one more time this season, in Barrie on March 20. . . Owen Sound outshot Barrie 33-29. . . The Colts were 0-for-4 on the man advantage, while the Attack went 0-for-2.