He didn’t run off with any Christmas presents or special holiday treats, yet Ben Hrebik managed to pull off his own impressive interpretation of the Grinch on Sunday in North Bay by helping the Barrie Colts steal an important two points.
Barrie’s own Grinch gifted his teammates an impressive 45-save performance in net to lead the Colts to a 3-1 win over the Battalion and spoil a holiday season afternoon contest for 3,069 fans at the Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
While he wasn’t looking to steal Christmas in the first game back after the Holiday Break, Hrebik’s heist helped move the Colts (20-10-1-4) seven points ahead of the Battalion (18-14-2-0) atop the Central Division standings.
“(Hrebik) always shows up for us,” said rookie Barrie forward Eamon Edgar, who scored what proved to be the game-winner at 12:21 of the second period. “Another amazing performance by him today.”
Hrebik is coming off a standout first half of the season, and following Sunday’s performance now boasts a 2.68-goals against average and OHL-leading .929 save percentage.
He’s pretty much picked right up where he left off before the Christmas break.
“Going into a break, when you’re that hot, I’m sure Ben didn’t want that break at that point and wanted to keep playing through,” Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz said of Hrebik. “So, there’s always that risk when coming back of losing that mojo, but he obviously kept it. It was 45 to 16, the shots on net.
“You put any other goalie except Arvin Jaswal in our net, and you probably lose that game. We were talking in the coach’s office about having two of the best goalies in the league. It seems like either one you put in the net gives us a chance to win.”
With offensive stars Cole Beaudoin, Emil Hemming, and Kashawn Aitcheson away at the World Junior Hockey Championships, the Colts managed to score just once in their three games before the break.
Thanks to Hrebik, though, they didn’t need much offence on Sunday.
“Even when those guys are here, we still rely on Ben and Arvin as a tandem,” said Smoskowitz. “Just to know that we have that kind of backbone in net for us, it allows us to play a little more freely. It allows us to have confidence late in games, and especially to lock it down like that with some crazy penalties back and forth.
“Ben just does it all for us.”
Edgar admits it’s nice having those kinds of performances backing you up.
“We have that confidence in both our goalies, so that’s great,” he said. “Whenever Hrebik is in the net, he’s going to play his game.”
Barrie would get all the scoring it would need in the second. In a period where they were outshot, 14-3.
Despite managing just three shots, the Colts made them count, scoring twice.
Jonah McCormick opened the scoring at 2:47 when he took a feed from Alex Assadourian and walked into the high slot and wired one over the pad of Mike McIvor.
Then, with Barrie on the power play, Edgar would double the lead when Jaiden Newton found him behind the defence, and the rookie forward backhanded it over the pad of McIvor.
It’s quality over quantity for Smoskowitz. The coach believes shooting percentage is a more important statistic than shots.
“It’s not that we want to be giving up that many shots, but we’re not that concerned about shots. It’s the quality of shots,” he said. “Are you getting to the inside? Is it a shot with a screen?
“I thought the McCormick shot was fantastic. It was a really well-placed shot, a quick release on a line rush. Then, on the power play, it was quick movement and getting the puck down low, and then Edgar buries it. We would like to have a bigger number of shots, but we were happy with the quality.”
Just seconds after coming up short on a power play, Evgeny Dubrovtsev would finally get North Bay on the board at 10:46 of the third to cut the lead to 2-1.
Brad Gardiner, though, would ice the game with just 23 seconds remaining with his long empty-netter.
“That’s a big game by us to close that one out,” said Edgar.
The Battalion had won both previous meetings with the Colts this season, and another on Sunday would have put them just three points behind with a game in hand.
“We knew this was a four-point game and this is a team we hadn’t beat yet, so our guys took it personally,” said Smoskowitz. “I don’t think anyone was happy with our effort last weekend before the break. Just because you’re missing some guys in the lineup does not give anyone an excuse to play down or not rise to the occasion.
“We kind of challenged our guys before the game, and I was really happy with the compete today.”
The Colts return to action on Wednesday night when they host the Sudbury Wolves in their traditional New Year’s Eve contest at Sadlon Arena.
Game time is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Colts finished 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Battalion went 0-for-6. . . Barrie was outshot 46-16. “We don’t want to give up that many shots, but I thought North Bay had a lot of jump today and had some good looks,” said Smoskowitz. “(Hrebik) just held down the fort.” . . . Barrie called up Nolan Newton to fill in for William Schneid, who was a scratch after injuring himself in the loss to London just before the Christmas break. “He had a good skate with us (Saturday), and he’s going to get a contact practice (Monday), so we’re assuming he’s back on Wednesday,” said Smoskowitz.
