The OHL’s most penalized team was at it again Saturday night, and this time the Barrie Colts’ lack of discipline proved costly.
On a two-man advantage and with 5:53 remaining, Chase Reid blasted a point shot past Ben Hrebik to tie it, and then both Brady Martin and Marco Mignosa scored in the shootout to help the host Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds snap Barrie’s six-game winning streak with a come-from-behind 4-3 win at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Barrie caught a huge break two minutes earlier when goaltending interference wiped out Quinn Mackenzie’s equalizer after a lengthy video review, but the Colts couldn’t stay out of the box.
Gabriel Eliasson’s night came to a premature end when he was handed a slashing major and game misconduct at 14:07, and then a little more than three minutes later, Cole Beaudoin was sent off for a face-off violation after putting his hand on the puck.
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With the Greyhounds (12-8-1-0) on a two-man advantage for the full two minutes, Mignosa slid the puck back to Reid at the point, and the top NHL draft prospect one-timed a blast into the top corner past the glove of Hrebik.
“That’s not a recipe for a winning hockey team,” said Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz, whose club was shorthanded two men twice late in the contest. “It just comes down to being smarter and being disciplined. Understanding time and place. It’s a three-in-three, we’re playing well, and we got four points in the bag, and we’re going into the third period with the lead, and we just got to shut it down.
“You can’t spend that much time down five-on-four, five-on-three. You’re not (winning) hockey games like that.”
Eliasson’s major, which came off a faceoff, was especially unnecessary.
“Obviously, there’s some discipline issues we have to sharpen up,” said Smoskowitz.
The Colts (9-7-0-4) lead all OHL teams with 307 penalty minutes, and while they only gave up a single power-play goal on seven chances – thanks in large part to several outstanding stops by Hrebik – it was enough to spoil what could have been a perfect three-win weekend.
The Colts’ penalty kill has been really good of late, but the two-man advantages allowed for the Greyhounds to tee off.
“Even five-on-four, I think we could have survived it,” said Smoskowitz. “The penalty kill has been really dialed in of late, but five-on-three? It’s almost impossible. You need a goalie to stand on his head, and that’s exactly what Hrebik did tonight, and that’s the reason we actually got to overtime.
“I’m so proud of Hrebik and how hard he fought for our guys.”
The veteran goaltender was his usual stellar self, but he was especially good over the final two periods as Sault Ste. Marie outshot Barrie 28-8 in an effort to battle back from a 3-1 deficit.
“If there are any NHL scouts in the building tonight, and this kid leaves the building without an NHL contract, it’s a travesty because he was phenomenal,” said Smoskowitz. “He was the only reason we got a point. He was making saves I almost never see goalies make.”
Staying out of the box has been a work in progress, says Brad Gardiner.
“We haven’t helped ourselves late in the game, but I think the way our team plays – as a hard, heavy team, not fun to play against – penalties, unfortunately, we’re going to have to kill off sometimes,” explained the overage forward, who scored once and finished with three points in the loss. “Obviously, today we had a few more than we liked, but I think we’re still happy with it.
“Our penalty kill is good, and Hrebik has to be our best penalty killer and was good tonight. He played great. It doesn’t go to overtime without him.”
Coming off a pair of losses, the Greyhounds came out strong early and were rewarded when Jeremy Martin snapped a shot from just inside the blueline, and it bounced off the glove hand of Hrebik and in.
Barrie took over from there midway through the opening frame, and its power play helped even things up when Kashawn Aitcheson set up Cole Beaudoin in front, and the captain beat Barrie native and Soo goaltender Landon Miller to extend his point streak to 10 games (5-15-20).
Calvin Crombie put the Colts on top a little more than three minutes later, before Gardiner picked up a loose puck in front just 44 seconds into the second period and walk around the right pad of Miller before jamming it home.
With a 3-1 lead, the Colts were in decent shape to make it a perfect weekend. Jordan Charron got one early in the second to make it 3-2, but the big push came later in the third.
“If you look back to a month ago to now, we’ve just been getting better and better every day,” said Gardiner. “Our team has had a lot of different situations we’ve been faced with, whether it’s overtime, or late comebacks.
“Whether it’s defending a league, down a goal, or up a goal, we’ve had every situation, and that’s kind of what you want early on to see what you’re made of.”
Barrie was strong in the three-on-three overtime, but couldn’t get the winner. Both Aitcheson and Emil Hemming were stopped in the shootout, and the Greyhounds, who topped the Colts 5-4 in a shootout in Barrie earlier this season, swept the season series.
“The overall weekend was a successful weekend for us,” said Smoskowitz. “You just hate to give that extra point away. I did like a lot of things in tonight’s game. Obviously, the penalties took us away from that. I liked our overtime, and a shootout is a shootout. It’s a crapshoot when you get to that point, but five out of six (points) we’ll take.
“We’ll have a good bus ride home, have a day off, and then get ready for Saginaw on Thursday.”
Things heated up on the ice as the Greyhounds celebrated their win. Blake Arrowsmith took a chop at Crombie with his stick, and the Barrie overage forward responded with one of his own.
Arrowsmith was handed a game misconduct, with Travis Hayes and Martin each awarded misconduct penalties. Aitcheson and Evan Passmore drew misconduct penalties for Barrie.
ICE CHIPS
Smoskowitz praised assistant coach Connor Cadaret for telling them from upstairs about the goalie interference on McKenzie’s goal. Hrebik had his stick knocked down by a Soo player in front.
“It was a great call... He was very adamant that it was goaltender interference, and he was right,” said Smoskowitz
Aitcheson’s six-game goal-scoring streak ended, as did Hemming’s five-game point streak (3-10-13)
The point moved Barrie into a tie with Niagara atop the Central Division standings, though the IceDogs have two games in hand.
ADD. OHL
Erie 5 Niagara 2
Flint 6 Guelph 3
London 3 Owen Sound 2 (SO)
North Bay 7 Saginaw 1
Windsor 6 Brampton 3
