The Barrie Colts are coming home with a chance to close out their Eastern Conference semi-final series against the Ottawa 67’s.
Joe Salandra scored the eventual game winner on the power play with 12:23 remaining, and the Colts survived a furious late rally by the 67’s in the final three minutes to hold on for a 3-2 win in a pivotal Game 4, Thursday night, at TD Place in the Nation’s Capital.
Barrie now leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can wrap it up at home on Saturday night.
Game time at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
“One hundred per cent,” said Salandra when asked about wanting to finish the series Saturday and avoid a Game 6 back in Ottawa on Sunday. “We had a lot of confidence going into that game (tonight). We’ve done a good job just playing our game this whole series, and that’s our plan Saturday.
“Just keep to our systems, and we’ll find a way.”
With Barrie up 3-0 with 3:10 remaining, Nic Sima and Frank Marrelli scored power-play goals a 1:12 apart to get the 67’s within one.
Then, with just seconds remaining, Spencer Bowes found himself in front of a wide-open net with goaltender Ben Hrebik down and the tying goal on his stick.
The Ottawa winger, though, would slide the puck through the crease and past the far post as time ran out.
Regardless of the frantic finish, the Colts were glad to get out of there with the win.
“It’s a big win,” said Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “At this time of the year, there are so many little things that you can be upset about and complain about when things don’t go your way. Was it too close at the end? One hundred per cent. Do we want to get some of those penalties back? We absolutely do.
“We will learn from it, but we got the win. It’s one more win and one less win that we got to get to get to where we want to be. It’s a really good opportunity on Saturday to close this thing out.”
Smoskowitz admits he could hardly breathe when he saw Bowes with the puck and a yawning cage in front of him, especially after co-captain Cole Beaudoin had come so close to ending it twice into an empty net.
“I don’t know if my heart is in my body. It was beating so hard,” said the Colts’ bench boss with a grin, and looking more relaxed after the game. “When Beaudoin missed the empty net, it’s so uncharacteristic of him. He’s one of the best hockey players I’ve been on the ice with, but when he misses it, you just know something bad is going to happen.
“It almost did, and we got lucky. I don’t know what I did, but the hockey Gods were on my side today.”
With just 49 seconds remaining and Ottawa’s Ryder Fetterolf pulled from the net, Beaudoin carried the puck over centre ice and looked well on his way to putting the game away when Marrelli tripped the Utah Mammoth prospect from behind.
Although Marrelli received a tripping penalty, Smoskowitz argued that Beaudoin was on a breakaway and that an automatic goal should have been awarded.
“That was my argument to the officials,” he said. “(The ref’s) argument was that it was more of a 50/50 race, and he hadn’t pulled away yet, so it was not going to be an automatic goal with the goalie pulled.
“These officials are highly trained, and good guys, and they probably made a good call there.”
Seconds later, Beaudoin would almost put it away again, but his shot from centre ice slid past the net.
“That’s the great thing about this team,” said Salandra. “We just keep it going, and we don’t stop playing our game. . . We get so many chances, and we’re just going to keep pushing.”
Despite a strong start by the 67’s, who built a 9-2 advantage in shots early, it was the Colts who would find themselves on top 1-0 after the first period.
With 5:07 left in the frame, Kashawn Aitcheson found Emil Hemming on the doorstep. The Dallas Stars’ top prospect would slide the puck across the crease to Carter Lowe, who backhanded it into the open side.
Barrie, which would outshoot the 67’s 20-12 in the first, added another one in the second when Beaudoin fought off a pair of defenders in the corner to get the puck to Hemming in front at 12:23.
“I liked so much of our game tonight,” said Smoskowitz. “There are so many positive clips that we can show the guys, and reinforce at practice (Friday), and on our game day on Saturday. We were so happy with the way the series started, and we really felt in control coming up here ahead 2-0.
“We knew this was our goal. Do you want to win both on the road? Absolutely, but this was our goal, and we got that. Now we have a chance in front of a sold-out crowd on Saturday night to finish it.”
The Barrie power play, which was handed a lone opportunity late in Ottawa’s 5-2 win in Game 3, would come up big again in the third.
Salandra pounced on a loose puck in front and carried it behind the net before burying his wraparound attempt to make it 3-0 at the 7:37 mark of the third.
“I saw short side, but I saw (Fetterolf) down,” said Salandra. “I decided to have some patience, take my time, and go around the net with it.”
Barrie’s power play would capitalize twice on four chances on this night, including the eventual game-winner.
“We have two power plays that really show up,” said Salandra of a Barrie power play that sits first overall in the playoffs with a 51.7 per cent efficiency rate. “The thing about us, no matter who is out there, we have a lot of confidence in each other. The first power play has confidence in us, and we have confidence in them.
“It doesn’t matter who is out there; we just know we’re going to get one.”
Ottawa, thanks to a pair of power plays, wouldn’t go quietly. Smoskowitz told his team in the dressing room that it was 57 minutes of great hockey.
“Fifty-seven is a really good showing,” said the Barrie bench boss, who was sick in bed all day Wednesday and missed the team’s outing at the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs game that night. “Those last three minutes, we want back. You play good teams like Ottawa, or good teams like the ones remaining in the playoffs, they can make you pay in three minutes.
“So, 57 minutes is something really good to build off of, but we’re looking forward to a full 60 on Saturday.”
After the wild end to this one, the Colts did little celebrating despite it moving them to a win away from a date with the Brantford Bulldogs in the Eastern Conference final.
“We’re a team that takes pride in breaking spirits,” said Smoskowitz. “It’s something we talk about quite often. We want to beat you on the scoreboard. We want to break you physically. We want to break your spirit. We want to beat you everywhere.
“We let them back in this game and come inches away from tying it up and forcing overtime, where we thought we did a good job tonight of breaking their spirit. We’ll look forward to doing that on Saturday.”
FIVE COLTS ON NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING LIST
Ben Wilmott led a group of five Barrie players listed on the final North American NHL Central Scouting Rankings on Thursday.
Wilmott, who is among the OHL playoff scoring leaders with eight goals and 13 points, was the highest-ranked Colt at No. 71. Salandra is ranked 152nd among North American skaters, while Justin Handor is 207th.
Both Hrebik and Arvin Jaswal are among those listed in the North American goalie rankings. Jaswal is 18th overall, while Hrebik is 31st overall.
COLTS INK BIG BLUELINE PROSPECT
Barrie signed towering defenceman Aiden Mowery to a contract on Thursday.
The six-foot-four, 204-pound right-shot blueliner, who is with the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite U-18 AAA program, brings a strong physical presence and high-end defensive upside.
Mowery, a native of Wexford, PA, was Barrie’s 2025 fifth-round pick (84th overall) in the OHL Priority Selection.
“He has developed in one of the top Tier 1 programs in the United States, consistently facing elite competition at the U18 level,” the Colts said in a press release announcing the signing of the 16-year-old.
“His combination of height, mobility, and right-hand shot adds valuable depth to the Colts’ defensive core.”
ICE CHIPS: Barrie outshot Ottawa 43-35. . . The Colts had the same lineup as Game 3. Ottawa had defenceman Dave Bedkowski return from a two-game suspension, while rookie forward Brayden Krawczyk was in for former Barrie AAA minor midget Brock Chitaroni. . . Hemming also added an assist and now has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in nine playoff games to rank fifth overall among OHL scoring leaders. Beaudoin had an assist and leads all playoff scores with 20 points.
