The Barrie Colts didn’t finish what they started in the Nation’s Capital on Tuesday night, and it has allowed the Ottawa 67’s back into their Eastern Conference semi-final series.
Barrie failed to build on a dominating first period, and the 67’s took advantage, reversing the momentum to score four-straight, including three in the second, en route to a 5-2 win in front of 2,556 at TD Place.
Barrie still leads the best-of-seven matchup 2-1 and will once again look to grab a stranglehold of the series on Thursday night back in Ottawa.
“I think we got away from finishing every check and going through guys, especially in the second, there, and a little bit at the end,” Colts’ winger Ben Wilmott said of a tremendous forecheck that pinned the 67’s in their own zone through much of the opening period, only to disappear the rest of the way. “We just got to get back to our style.
“Get back to our identity for Thursday.”
Barrie stormed out of the gate, grabbing a first-period lead on a Calvin Crombie snipe at 12:03 from the slot over the shoulder of Ottawa goaltender Ryder Fetterolf, who kept his team in the game early on.
At that point, Ottawa was being outshot 15-3 and was being thoroughly outplayed.
The second period, though, was a vastly different story. The Colts’ forecheck faded, and the 67’s would take over, using their power play to ignite their rally when Frankie Marrelli, with the home team on a five-on-three advantage, blasted a one-timer from the faceoff dot past goalie Ben Hrebik at 9:11.
Thomas Vandenberg would beat Hrebik at 16:05, before another power-play marker by Cooper Foster over three minutes later stretched the lead.
Spencer Bowes would make it 4-1 at 4:17 of the third, and a desperate Ottawa team had its response.
“Any time you take some penalties in the playoffs, especially a five-on-three, that’s tough to defend against a good team like that,” said Smoskowitz. “I really liked our start, and for whatever reason, we didn’t carry over that same killer instinct, that desperation mentality.
“That was a big challenge for our guys tonight. They’re going to be a desperate hockey team. I thought in the first we played really desperate, and then we kind of let our foot off the gas, and it came back to bite us.”
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An undisciplined 67’s squad paid the price in the opening two games of the series, as the Colts’ power-play was key in both wins, going 4-for-7.
The 67’s held their cool in this one, staying out of the box until late in the third when they drew a delay of game penalty. They also went 2-for-3 with the man advantage to win a key battle of the specialty teams.
“Credit to them. It’s so tough to be disciplined,” said Smoskowitz. “There are so many emotions on the ice, but those guys did a good job of staying out of the box. They didn’t allow our power play to go to work tonight until the very end,
“That’s a key to anyone’s success. You show me a good team in the playoffs that goes on a long run, it’s going to be a disciplined team. That’s something we preach to our guys on a daily basis, and something we’ll again talk about tomorrow.”
Barrie tried to claw its way back in the final period.
Wilmott cut the lead in half just under three minutes later, before the Colts almost got it down to a one-goal lead when Beaudoin drilled one off the post, and Wilmott fired one off the crossbar.
Nic Sima’s empty-netter with 52 seconds remaining would seal a much-needed win for the 67’s.
“I thought we were a little more desperate in the third, but again I thought we lost that desperation in the second period,” said Smoskowitz. “We’re going to have so many good clips to show these guys from the first, and if we can just keep that tempo and pace, and aggression up for a full 60 minutes, we’re a hard team to beat.
“You give me three times that first period, and I don’t know anyone in this league who could beat us, so we have to get back to playing that game and playing that game the whole game through.”
That aggressive forecheck is hard on opposing defencemen, said Smoskowitz, and forces them to make mistakes.
“When you don’t have that hunt mentality, and you’re not forcing so many mistakes, they’re going to play a much cleaner game, and it’s going to put us on our heels a little bit,” he added. “I think that’s what happened in the second and third tonight.”
The Colts will have to learn from this and then put it behind them.
“The biggest thing is not having the highs too high, not having the lows too low,” said Wilmott. “Just keep it even keel and stand ready for the next task at hand.
“We’re doing a good job of not letting this one get to us and just being ready for a good rebound.”
Smoskowitz wants his team to stick to their game. The off-day will be spent on sharpening up the necessary areas of their game they feel are important to be successful and then be confident in themselves when they take to the ice in Game 4 on Thursday night.”
“That’s a good team, and you knew they were going to push back hard in the first game on home ice in the second round, but Thursday’s a big game,” said the Barrie bench boss. “We come out of here with a split, and that was kind of our goal going into it.
“We can bring it back (to Barrie) for Saturday night, which we’re looking forward to. Obviously, we’ll get retuned a little bit here with a good day of practice (Wednesday) and be ready to rock ’n’ roll for Thursday night.”
Puck drop Thursday is 7 p.m.
COLTS HEADING TO LEAFS AND SENS GAME
The Barrie Colts will spend their night off on Wednesday in the Nation’s Capital watching NHL hockey.
Owner Howie Campbell has purchased tickets for the team to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Colts’ blueliner Gabriel Eliasson was a second-round pick of the Senators (39th overall) in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
ICE CHIPS: Game 5 of the series is back in Barrie on Saturday night, at 7:30 p.m. . . . Barrie outshot Ottawa 38-37. . . Beaudoin had two assists and now has points in all 8 Barrie playoff games. He leads the OHL in playoff scoring with five goals and 14 assists for 19 points. . . Emil Hemming (6G, 7A) and Wilmott (8G, 5A) have 13 points each and are tied with Brantford’s Caleb Malhotra in fifth overall. . . Barrie made no lineup changes in Game 3. . . Ottawa blueliner David Bedkowski will return Thursday after completing his 2-game spearing suspension.
