Kashawn Aitcheson picked a good time Saturday night to make Barrie Colts franchise history.
The defenceman scored his record-breaking 24th goal of the season with just 54 seconds remaining to tie the game and sent it into overtime where Anthony Romani notched the winner at 1:36 to help the Barrie Colts rally for a dramatic 4-3 win over the Sarnia Sting in front of 4,207 fans at Sadlon Arena.
A top prospect for this year’s NHL Entry Draft, Aitcheson breaks the franchise record of 23 goals by a blueliner in a single season shared by Brandt Clarke (2022-23), Aaron Ekblad (2013-2014), and Andrew Marshall (2005-06).
“It’s obviously an unbelievable feeling,” the 18-year-old said shortly after breaking the record. “It’s such a cool thing and it wouldn’t happen without every single one of these guys. I just love how happy they were for me. It was a really cool moment.”
Down 3-2 and the Colts pressing to tie it, Cole Beaudoin threw a puck out in front from along the side boards that Beau Jelsma hammered toward the net.
Sarnia goaltender Evan Maillet made the save but he kicked the rebound right to Aitcheson who, parked to his left side, shoveled it over him to tie the game and set the record.
Aitcheson was thinking of only one thing when the puck bounced out to him with an open cage.
“Don’t miss the net. That’s all I was thinking,” said Aitcheson, laughing out loud.
The rugged defender was swarmed by his teammates and received a loud ovation from the fans.
“It’s amazing company,” Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson said of the former Colts Aitcheson now finds himself among. “I didn’t even know until four or five goals ago that he was even that close to something like that. I know Brandt only played half the season, but it’s still an amazing accomplishment.
“There have been a lot of good defencemen here through my time, through other coaches’ time, and for him to be the all-time leader in goals, that’s fantastic.”
It was also another big goal to add to the list of several of them for Aitcheson this season. The defenceman has had a flair for the dramatic this season.
He leads all OHL blueliners with six game-winning goals and four overtime winners.
“I just always try to come up big and try to help the team win,” said Aitcheson. “That’s just my goal every single game, is to come in and help my team win.”
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Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the rink and sporting their special jerseys, the Colts certainly had the luck of the Irish on their side.
Romani, who now has nine goals in his last nine games, would top off the night for the Colts (40-21-2-2) when he pounced on a Jelsma rebound in front and tucked it around the pad of Maillet for the overtime winner.
Barrie is now 7-2 in overtime games this season.
“I feel pretty confident with the guys we’re putting out,” said Williamson. “We were missing Beau Akey tonight, but we can put out some great combinations. Tristan Bertucci with Aitcheson and Akey, and with a combination of two forwards, is pretty strong.
“We do have a real confidence in our three-on-three game. We’ve got strong goaltending and if we make a mistake, we think they can bail us out and then look out for us coming the other way.”
Owen Van Steensel and Emil Hemming also scored for Barrie, which had a 27-save effort in goal from Sam Hillebrandt
Zach Filak, Easton Wainwright, and Daylen Moss scored for the Sting (21-36-5-4), which is now tied with the Owen Sound Attack for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference standings with three games remaining.
“We did a pretty good job tonight,” said Williamson, whose club trailed 3-1 after the opening period. “That goalie (Maillet) stood on his head a few times and we couldn’t get pucks by him. I was hoping we’d win just to reward the team for how they played because they needed that tonight.”
It's been a roller coaster of a second half of the season for the Colts, who have struggled to find consistency with their game.
“I think it was needed obviously,” Aitcheson said of the win. “We played more to our identity, more to our game. I hope we just keep this going and stay consistent going into playoffs.”
Despite Filak scoring just 48 seconds into the game, the Colts got off to a pretty good start, but three penalties would slow down the home team in the opening period, and they paid a price.
“The penalties kind of derailed us a little bit in the first,” said Williamson. “I thought we had great energy, and I just loved the way we came out. We took three stupid penalties and I kind of lambasted the guys on that. We took six minutes out of our period that we really could have imposed ourselves and we didn’t. We allowed them to hang around and feel better about themselves.
“Then in the second, yeah it got a little wobbly early, we got on our toes and created. It seemed like we had two or three good shifts in a row, and that was kind of the challenge to our guys. We’ve had such inconsistency to our game. We need to put periods together, games together, and it starts with shifts.”
The Colts received a big boost on the point with the return of Tristan Bertucci. The Dallas Stars prospect, who has been out since February 1st after coming down with mono, saw a good amount of ice time in his return but felt it.
“He says he’s tired,” said Williamson. “You’re out a month, almost five weeks actually, it’s not easy to step into this pace at this time of year. The teams that we’re playing are all playing for their lives. This team wanted this win badly, and North Bay wants to win badly, and Owen Sound wants to win badly and then we got Niagara to finish.
“You’re going to get their best efforts. Some people say you’re not playing for as much and it’s hard, but we’re throwing that out the window. We need to play hard right now and a guy like Tristan getting back in our lineup is a big boost for us.”
Barrie caps off a busy three-in-three weekend Sunday afternoon when they travel to North Bay to face a Battalion team that is locked in a battle with the Ottawa 67’s for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
With each team having four games remaining, North Bay sits four points ahead of Ottawa.
The Colts then wrap up their season next weekend at home against Owen Sound on Thursday and Niagara on Saturday.
“Yeah, we’ll look at that,” Williamson said of the possibility of resting players next weekend. “We have a soft schedule next week (just two games), so it’s kind of game-to-game really with our guys. If we can go up there (North Bay) and play our game, I’ll be happy. I just haven’t seen our game, so we kind of need these games to get on track.”
Game time Sunday afternoon at the Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens is 2 p.m.
ICE CHIPS:
Beau Akey missed Saturday’s contest and will be a game-time decision Sunday in North Bay. “He’s going to take warmup tomorrow and we’ll see if he can go,” said Williamson. “We’re not going to push him if he’s not ready to go. He wants to play. It’s just a bruise, nothing serious, but if he needs another couple of days will give it to him.” . . . The Colts auctioned off their special St. Patrick’s Day jerseys after the game. Money raised goes towards the Colts Foundation. . . Barrie outshot Sarnia 39-30, including 28-16 over the final two periods and overtime. . . Romani has nine goals and 16 points over his last nine games, while Van Steensel has goals in three straight games. . . Beaudoin and Jelsma each had two assists. . . Brad Gardiner and Dalyn Wakely both played in their 250th career OHL games Friday night in Brampton.
