Good things happen when you put the puck on net.
The fundamental hockey axiom certainly worked out well for Gabriel Eliasson and the Barrie Colts on Thursday night at Sadlon Arena.
Eliasson’s knuckler from the point early in the third period snapped his stick along with a 2-2 tie and sparked a three-goal outburst in a little more than five minutes to lead the Colts to a 6-3 win over the Kingston Frontenacs.
The Ottawa Senators prospect didn’t even see it go in.
“No. Not at all,” said Eliasson with a big grin. “I was on my way to the bench to get a new stick, so I was surprised. It’s always fun scoring, of course.”
Just 1:54 into the third, William Schneid sent the puck back to Eliasson at the blueline, and the defensive defenceman took a couple of strides towards the middle of the ice and whipped a shot that broke his stick.
The puck hit Kingston defender Matthew Henderson in front and found its way past goaltender Gavin Betts.
It was just the second time Eliasson has found the back of the net this season.
“I got a good pass, and how we play in the offensive zone, we got to move to the middle and get a quick shot, and that’s what I did, and I broke my stick,” he explained.
“Funny, that it went in.”
Brad Gardiner and Cole Beaudoin would score 86 seconds apart to help Barrie blow open a close game.
“It started with Gabe’s goal,” said Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “It’s never a bad play to put the puck on net. Good things tend to happen, and that’s exactly what happened tonight.”
Barrie (36-11-2-4) has now won six straight and 17 of its last 19 games to move within one point of the Ottawa 67’s atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Emil Hemming, with a pair, and Cole Emerton also scored for the Colts, who face the 67’s in the Nation’s Capital on Monday afternoon.
“It was a good bounce. I thought we could use a couple of bounces tonight,” Smoskowitz said of Eliasson’s goal that got the Colts going. “It was a strange game, a quiet game. Not a lot of life in the game. Not a lot of emotion. No one is going to chirp after the whistles.”
Coming off a weekend sweep over North Bay, where both games featured a lot of “emotion” and “testosterone,” Smoskowitz said it wasn’t that kind of game, but he’s proud of his team for finding a way to fight through it.
“There was a lot of positive talk on the bench,” he said. “A lot of guys pumping each other up, and a lot of the guys saying the right things. I feel like that kind of carried us through the game tonight.”
Alex Misiak, Landon Wright, and Maleek McGowan scored for the Frontenacs (24-24-2-2), who never trailed until Eliasson’s third-period marker.
Barrie came out firing in the third to grab a 5-2 lead a little more than seven minutes into the period.
Third periods have been a strength for the Colts through their hot run since Christmas, and last night was no different.
“That’s how we play, and what we’re able to do, and it’s why we’re winning so much right now, because we never give up,” said Eliasson. “We want to score those goals and do the gritty work.
In a tight game like this one after 40 minutes, Smoskowitz knows it’s often who blinks first.
“It wasn’t us tonight,” he said. “Then we kept pouring it on. We didn’t feel comfortable with a one-goal lead tonight. They had some good chances as well. I’m very glad the guys continued to push the pace. That’s something we talked about as well. We don’t want to ever be sitting back, whether we’re holding a lead or going to get a lead back.
“We want to play fast. We want to play with pace. We want to get pucks toward the net. I thought the guys did a good job of that.”
The big guns came through for Barrie once again. Beaudoin, who earlier this week was named the OHL Player of the Week, added three assists to finish the night with four points, including his 200th point on his 24th goal of the season.
It was the second straight game with four points for the Utah Mammoth prospect, who now has 69 points and sits fourth overall in OHL scoring.
Hemming added an assist for a three-point night, while Kashawn Aitcheson added three helpers (22-31-53) to move within two points of Windsor’s Carson Woodall for top spot in scoring among defencemen, despite playing 11 fewer games.
The New York Islanders prospect hasn’t scored in 11 games – his longest stretch of the season – but is finding all sorts of other ways to be a major contributor.
“You can’t get much closer to scoring without doing it, but he’s all over it,” said Smoskowitz of Aitcheson, who now has 154 career points, just four behind Brandt Clarke (158) for the franchise scoring record among defencemen. “He was hungry tonight. I thought he had really good jump.
“I thought he chose good times to jump into the play and be offensive. The goals didn’t come off his stick, but he generated a lot for us tonight.”
The Colts can now turn their full attention to Monday afternoon’s contest in Ottawa. They won the last meeting 4-1 in the capital back on Dec. 5th.
Ottawa has won eight of its last 10 games and is among the OHL’s hottest teams since the January 10th trade deadline.
“It’s definitely a game the guys are going to build up,” said Smoskowitz. “It’s a good test for them as well. They want to see where they stack up with these other teams at the top of the conference.”
Barrie will have a day off on Friday, before returning to practice on Saturday. They’ll head up to Ottawa on Sunday to get set for the 3 p.m. puck drop on Monday.
“I’m very excited. I’m excited for every game, but it’s going to be a big game against Ottawa,” said Eliasson. “They’re a good team, and at the trade deadline, they got some heavy guys, but we know what we have to do.
“It’s going to be a good game.”
ICE CHIPS: Kingston boasts the league’s second-best penalty kill, but Barrie’s fourth-ranked power play got the better, finishing 2-for-2 with both goals tying the game up in the second period. “Without them, we don’t win this game,” said Smoskowitz. . . Arvin Jaswal made 32 saves to improve his record in goal to 13-3-0-1. . . The Colts outshot the Frontenacs, 40-35. . . Emerton, who also had an assist, and Joseph Salandra are tied with Guelph’s Jaakko Wycisk for ninth in rookie scoring with 28 points each.
