Specialty teams’ play is killing the Barrie Colts right now.
The latest damage came Saturday night in a 5-3 loss to the Sudbury Wolves at Sadlon Arena that handed Barrie its third loss in three days.
The Colts' (4-5) struggles on the power play and penalty kill were evident all weekend, and perhaps none-more-so than in the loss to Wolves (6-4).
The penalty-killing unit gave up three goals on five chances, while the Barrie power-play could only muster a goal on six chances and even that was wiped out by giving up a shorthanded marker.
“Right now, it just isn’t our game we’re trying to play,” said head coach Marty Williamson. “We challenged our guys to have nine good periods and five-on-five we had nine pretty good periods. Specialty teams killed us all weekend. We know what we got to work on. We got to get better at it. We got to get chemistry.
“Missing (injured Jacob Frasca) today hurt a little bit too on the power play. We’re not as deep as we were last year, so we got to get the guys out there and execute.”
The numbers aren’t pretty. Among the 20 teams in the OHL, the Colts rank 19th overall on the penalty kill and 15th overall on the power play.
“Specialty teams, they’re one of the keys,” said Williamson. “Our five-on-five game is there, but our specialty teams are not anywhere near where we need them to be. It’s just a matter of hard work. We got guys that can execute, we just got to get bare down and get better. It just seems we’re fighting the puck a little bit on the power play. Nothing seems to be smooth. We seem to make one pass and then can’t make the next pass.
“It’s understanding your options and having confidence. Guys that are good on power plays, they’re out there for a reason. They got to have the confidence and I just don’t think we’re at that stage right now.”
Early penalty trouble put the Colts in a hole they wouldn’t be able to dig out of all night. Quentin Musty, just 1:25 in, and Landon McCallum, with 1:47 remaining, gave the Wolves a 2-0 opening-period lead.
While the Sudbury power play capitalized on its chances with the man advantage in the first, Barrie came up empty on its.
The Colts had three chances, including a full two-minute two-man advantage, but wasted them.
“We’re struggling right now on our specialty teams, but that’s what practice is for,” said Colts veteran forward Roenick Jodoin, who had Barrie’s lone power-play goal midway through the second to cut the lead to 3-1. “Work on it, keep working on it until we start scoring and when we get confidence that’s when we’ll be a top-five (unit) in the league. We just got to keep practicing.”
Nathan Villeneuve’s shorthanded marker early in the second made it 3-0, before Jodoin cut the lead after Sudbury’s Dalibor Dvorsky was handed a five-minute major for a slew foot on Kashawn Aitcheson.
Every time the Colts seemed to get close, the Wolves responded. Evan Konyen restored the three-goal lead three minutes later, before Tai York fired one over the blocker of Sudbury goalie Jakub Vondras.
Kocha Delic would make it 5-2 late in the second, before Riley Paterson gave the Colts some hope with his fourth of the year a little more than three minutes into the third period.
Barrie’s power play then had a chance to redeem itself late in the contest when Coughlan was handed his second double minor of the game for high sticking with 5:11 remaining.
As it was pretty much all weekend, the power play couldn’t take advantage.
“You get one or two, you build momentum, and you keep it going,” said Jodoin of turning things around on the power play. “It’s like a train. You don’t stop the train once you get going. Chances are going to turn into goals soon and they’re going to turn in results at the end of the day.”
The Colts could ill afford a poor start against a Sudbury team many consider the favourite in the Eastern Conference. Bad penalties and missed opportunities, it all caught up to Barrie this weekend.
“When you’re probably not quite the team they have over there (Sudbury), you make too many mistakes early it’s tough to get back into games,” said Williamson. “Hills are going to be tough for us to climb because you tend to push a little bit and open up, and it’s just not great for us.
“We need to come out from the beginning and play and not take penalties, and hopefully teams take penalties and we’ll be able to get a lead and play a game like that.”
The Colts return to action Thursday night when they kick off another three-in-three weekend at home against the Erie Otters.
“We definitely got to learn from this weekend,” said Jodoin. “We can’t go 0-3 again, that’s for sure. This is not our club. We’ll move on, we’ll get better and keep getting better as the year goes on.”
Game time is 7 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Frasca was scratched Saturday after hurting his hip in the 3-1 loss Friday in Guelph. “We’re being told he’s going to be OK for next week, he just needed rest right now,” said Williamson. . . Barrie outshot Sudbury 28-23. . . Barrie native Nolan Jackson played his first game in his hometown. . . Last night’s attendance of 3,620 was the highest this season. . . The parents of Colts import forward Eduard Sale are flying in from the Czech Republic this week. . . It was a typical game between the Central Division rivals, with plenty of rough stuff and shoving after the whistle.
Banner image via Sam Hossack/Barrie Colts - Barrie Colts captain Connor Punnett and Sudbury Wolves forward Quentin Musty get tangled up in third period action, Saturday night, at Sadlon Arena
