A 3-2 shootout loss on the road to the North Bay Battalion on Sunday afternoon was a bitter pill to swallow for a Barrie Colts team that had battled back from a two-goal deficit in the third period only to suffer a fifth-straight defeat.
Still, head coach Dylan Smoskowitz had a message for his young club. Keep working, playing like they did this weekend, and better days are ahead.
“You’ve got to figure the break is going to come sooner or later,” said the Colts’ head coach after one of Barrie’s more complete all-around efforts in the last couple of weeks. “They’re working hard, and that’s the main thing. As long as we’re working hard. As long as the guys are buying in, then we’re going to be OK.
“The breaks are going to come. Our specialty teams are going to come as well, with more repetition and more practice time with each other. The work ethic and compete is key, and we saw that in the last two games.”
Nick Wellenreiter scored the lone goal of the shootout for the Battalion (6-5-0-0), which opened the rivalry weekend with a come-from-behind 4-3 win less than 16 hours earlier back in Barrie.
“You feel good about the point today, so you take it for what it is as a shootout loss,” added Smoskowitz. “It’s a very important point for us, which we’re happy to get.”
Despite playing one of their more complete games of the season, the Colts (3-6-0-3) still found themselves trailing 2-0 after a pair of late second-period goals four minutes apart by Ryder Cali, on the power play, and Adrian Manzo.
Barrie would get the spark it needed when Cole Beaudoin was nailed along the boards from behind by Ethan Procyszyn as the second period ended.
The Utah Mammoth first-rounder, who lay crumpled down on the ice for several minutes, would get his revenge in the third period.
Just 22 seconds into the power play, Carter Lowe was denied by Battalion goalie Mike McIvor in the slot. However, Beaudoin, positioned next to the net, scored on the rebound, reducing the deficit by half.
A little less than five minutes later, an amped up Beaudoin tied it when he rushed up the ice and cut to the middle of the slot before firing it between the pads of McIvor.
“We were all happy for him,” said overage forward Brad Gardiner, who had an assist playing alongside Beaudoin and Alex Assadourian for a team-leading 15th point (8-7-15). “To get hit like that, obviously, everyone’s going to be harder on him. He’s a good player and our captain. All the boys want to get in there when he gets hit like that. The boys love him.
“He got two big goals for us. We’re all happy to see him get those and kind of shove it up their butt a bit. It was good. I’m happy for him, and let’s keep going.”
Beaudoin, said Smoskowitz, was the spark they needed going into the third.
“He got the guys going,” said the Colts’ bench boss. “He and Kashawn Aitcheson, with the amount of minutes they play, and how hard they compete on a daily basis, it’s very special to be around.”
Barrie, inspired by their co-captain’s determination to battle back, would ramp up its play big time in the third before a delay of game penalty by Gardiner gave the Troops a huge opportunity to pull this one out in the dying minutes of regulation time.
“I think we had a good battle back there in the third period, and that’s improving in the right direction,” said Gardiner. “Lately, we’ve been doing the opposite of that. We’ve been going into the second and third periods with leads and kind of sitting back and letting other teams initiate and push us back on our heels.
“So, it was good to have that little push back in the third period. The power play connected early, coupled with another goal, and then kind of pushing. It was a big point. It would have been nice to get two points, but we just have to keep improving. Keep going in the right direction and keep going.”
Both teams had chances to finish it in overtime. Joe Salandra fired one off the crossbar, while Parker Vaughan had a wide-open net for North Bay, only to miss it.
“It goes to a skills competition at the end, and it could go either way, but the fact is we regrouped in the third and gave them a taste of their own medicine when they came back on us (Saturday night) in the third,” said Smoskowitz. “We came back against them today, and I wished we could have closed it later in the third and overtime.
“Salandra hit the crossbar, it was awfully close. Again, I’m pretty proud of our group for sticking with it and not giving up and fighting until the end.”
North Bay outshot Barrie, 39-27, but that was mostly thanks to the edge in power plays that resulted in the home team having six chances with the man advantage compared to three for the visitors.
“We were pretty happy with our kill today,” said Smoskowitz, who traded power-play goals with North Bay. “I know they got the one, but to have six opportunities and go 1-for-6 is pretty good. For our group, it’s something I’ve been stressing over the last little bit, so I’m pretty proud of them.”
The Colts will look to end their skid on Friday night when they travel to Sudbury Arena to take on the Central Division rival Wolves for the first time this season.
“It’ll start with practice. We’ve got a few more days,” said Gardiner. “We had those Wednesday and Thursday games lately, so it’ll be nice to have a full week of practice. Get some good workouts in, get everyone’s body feeling good. We have a big weekend coming up.
“We’ll just be focusing on one day at a time and getting better each day and being better by the weekend.”
Game time Friday night is 7:05 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Rookie goalie Arvin Jaswal got the start in goal for Barrie and made 36 saves. “There were some Grade A chances and Jazz stood in there,” Smoskowitz said of his young goalie. “He made some great saves in overtime.”
