The Barrie Colts are happy to have this week over with.
After beginning with a pair of road losses to the OHL’s two bottom teams, the Colts returned home Saturday night to face one of the league’s top teams and while the effort was a bit better, they still came out on the short end of a 4-1 decision to the Kitchener Rangers at Sadlon Arena.
The loss extends their season-high losing streak to four games.
The Colts (24-13-1-1) were looking to put back-to-back disappointing 5-2 losses in Owen Sound on Wednesday and Peterborough on Thursday behind them, but the Rangers (29-8-2-1), who were coming off their own 5-2 loss at home to Brampton the night before, erased any hope of that with a stifling defensive effort.
With the loss, Barrie remains three points behind the Niagara IceDogs with a game in hand atop both the Eastern Conference and Central Division standings.
“You can’t panic,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson, who is hoping to get injured forwards Cole Beaudoin and the recently acquired Anthony Romani back next week. “Even with Romani, it’s going to take us a little bit to get our consistency.
“You want to finish in first, and we still do, but we got to get this thing turned around in the right direction for playoffs and we’ve got lots of time to do that.”
It was easily the worst week of the season for the Colts, who appeared uninspired in losses to Owen Sound and Peterborough.
“It’s been a rough stretch, but I think it’s everyone getting used to each other,” said Kashawn Aitcheson of the recent additions ahead of Friday’s OHL trade deadline. “Every team goes through ebbs and flows and we’re just focusing on playoffs and being ready for that.”
Despite a turnover-filled first period, the Colts, thanks in large part to the play of goaltender Sam Hillebrandt, only trailed 1-0 on a Jack Pridham goal.
Cameron Reid and Kashawn Aitcheson, two of the top blueline prospects for this year’s NHL draft, exchanged goals late in the second, but an early marker in the third by Luca Romano and empty-net, power-play goal by Pridham handed Barrie its sixth-straight loss to the Rangers.
Barrie hasn’t beaten Kitchener since a 6-4 win there on Friday, March 6, 2020.
“I didn’t mind the jump today, it was just the execution,” said Williamson. “We’d get pucks in the slot and the puck would bounce on us. We had some chances, and we can’t bury them when we get those. We’re having a tough time with some puck luck.”
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Barrie has scored just six times over its four-game losing streak.
“There’s ups and downs to the offence,” said Aitcheson, who now has 11 goals on the season. “I feel like we’re on it. We have a bunch of high-end skilled players, a bunch of draft picks, a bunch of guys with big futures, so I think it’s going to start coming. You know, when it rains, it pours.”
The goal was the first in 10 games for Aitcheson.
“It’s good to get one,” he said. “I’m just kind of focused on getting through this run with the team here and hopefully next game we come back super strong.”
Aitcheson’s marker with 1:30 remaining in the second cut the lead to 2-1 and appeared to give the Colts a spark, but they couldn’t carry that into the third.
“I wish in the second period there was no flood, and we could have just kept going,” said Williamson. “The momentum was good, but we had to go to the dressing room and then you come out and you don’t have the same fight as we had there in the second period.
“Again, we took a step. We told the guys to get out of holes you got to take baby steps, and it doesn’t just happen magically. I thought we took a slight baby step, but we need to practice.
The Rangers, tied with London Knights with a league fewest 105 goals against, play as sound a defensive game as any team in the OHL.
Barrie managed just 23 shots and while they had some scoring opportunities on goaltender Jackson Parsons, the quality chances were few and far between.
“They play strong defence,” said Williamson. “They’ve only given up more than three goals in the last month once and that was last night against Brampton. We knew it was going to be a tight-checking game where we couldn’t make many mistakes.
“I thought our goaltender gave us everything he could to keep us in this thing. We’ve got to find ways to score goals, and we didn’t. We didn’t execute. There was one right at the end there and it bounces over his stick.
“When things go bad, that’s the way they tend to go.”
The Colts hope to have three regulars back up front next week. Jaiden Newton will return from serving a two-game suspension, while Romani is expected to return to play his first game since suffering a broken clavicle back on October 11 with the North Bay Battalion.
Beaudoin, who suffered an undisclosed injury while away at world juniors, is expected to visit a doctor on Sunday with the hopes of being cleared for Thursday’s game in North Bay.
“Hopefully Romani is back in our lineup on Thursday and maybe we’ll get good news on (Beaudoin) and get this thing turned around on Thursday,” said Williamson.
The head coach believes the effort was there and his club will soon get back on track.
“We got a little physical in the second period and it helped us,” Williamson said of Saturday night’s loss. “We got a little more consistent with our game, but we’re fighting it. We just got to persevere.”
Game time Thursday in North Bay is 7 p.m.
ICE CHIPS:
The game marked the return of former Colt Chris Grisolia, who was waved earlier in the season. The Colts played a nice video tribute to the gritty forward who spent more than three seasons with the team. His former teammates all stood on the bench and slapped their sticks on the boards in appreciation. . . A first-period goal by Kitchener’s Christian Humphreys was reviewed and called back on an offside. . . Hillebrandt stopped 37 of 40 shots in making his second-straight start. . . It was another sell-out, with 4,244 fans in attendance. . . Former Colt Luke Ellinas had two assists in the win. . . It was 80s night at the rink, with fans dressing in clothing from that decade and songs played from the decade.
