GAME SUMMARY
Flint, Mich. — OHL Saturday afternoon:
First Period
1. Flint, Paul 1 (Klaucans, Beauchesne) 2:28
2. Flint, Klaucans 5 (Bogas, Graziano) 4:51
3. Barrie, Desiderio 2 (Tang, Shargorodsky) 11:13
Penalties — Handsor Bar (holding) 6:18.
Second Period
4. Barrie, Mogull 5 (Lowe) 0:43
Penalties — Passmore Bar (check to the head) 4:01, Tsherna Bar (charging) 6:15, Kert Bar (holding) 9:14.
Third Period
5. Flint, Lombardi 7 (Anderson) 0:31
6. Barrie, Mogull 6 (Edgar, Handsor) 18:43 (pp)
Penalties — Lombardi Bar (tripping) 0:55, Shargorodsky Bar (check to the head) 4:06, Fellinger Fli (high-sticking) 17:31, Cunningham Fli (hooking) 18:26.
Overtime
7. Flint, Fellinger 1 (Bogas, Klaucans) 2:22
Penalties — None.
Shots on goal by
Barrie 6 2 7 0—15
Flint 10 17 12 2—41
Goal (shots-saves) — Barrie: Nikonovich (OTL,2-4-2-0); Flint: Courville (W,7-2-0-0).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Barrie: 1-2; Flint: 0-6.
Referees — Joe Monette, Michael Waley. Linesmen — Will Lamoreux, Joseph Erickson.
Attendance — 2,532 (4,365)
ADD. OHL
Windsor 8 Owen Sound 0
Guelph 5 Saginaw 3
For over a decade, the Dort Financial Center was practically a second home for the Barrie Colts.
That finally changed on Saturday afternoon.
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Rylan Fellinger scored 2:22 into overtime, lifting the Flint Firebirds to a 4-3 victory and snapping the Colts’ impressive decade-long undefeated streak in the Michigan city that began when the franchise relocated there in 2015.
Barrie (3-10-3-0) entered the contest having won all nine of its previous games in Flint (10-3-1-0) and looked poised to add to that total late in regulation. With the Colts on a two-man advantage and goaltender Matvei Nikonovich pulled for an extra attacker, Sebastian Mogull hammered a one-timer past Firebirds netminder Mason Courville with 1:17 remaining to tie the game at 3-3.
The Colts carried a power play into the extra frame, but they couldn’t capitalize. That allowed Fellinger to race from inside his own blue line down the middle of the ice, cut to the right at the top of the faceoff circle, and rip a shot over Nikonovich's blocker to exorcise Flint’s long-standing Barrie curse.
“Obviously, getting the point is nice, but I would have loved to have had four out of four points,” said Colts assistant coach Patrick Sexton, whose club was coming off a 2-0 road win over the Saginaw Spirit on Friday night. “Still, I’m very, very proud of the effort the guys put forth. We had outstanding goaltending all weekend.”
Early goals by James Paul and Martins Klaucans, just 2:23 apart inside the game's opening five minutes, gave the host Firebirds an early 2-0 lead. However, the young Colts squad clawed back when Nicholas Desiderio scored midway through the first period, followed by Mogull’s first of two on the night just 43 seconds into the second.
“Things had fallen off the rails there really quickly, going down in that hole,” Sexton said. “Nikonovich did a tremendous job for us back there. He made some huge saves, and we worked our way into our game. Once we got into our game, we started to establish some momentum and play to our identity.”
A parade to the penalty box in the second period, however, quickly derailed that momentum.
“We spent a lot of time having to defend, a lot of time in our own zone,” said Sexton, whose club was outshot 41-16, including a 17-2 margin in the middle frame. “Today, we had to spend a lot of energy killing penalties off, so that hurt us. In the end, we were not able to use our full bench — we were trying to keep everybody in the mix with the tight turnaround — because we had to kill all those penalties off.”
Fortunately for the Colts, the penalty-killing units, anchored by Nikonovich, were flawless, holding Flint scoreless on six power-play opportunities. Still, it meant an exhausting amount of ice time for key penalty killers like William Scheneid, Dylan Tsherna, Luca Testa, Anthony Figliomeni, Ben Lombardi, and Lowe.
“It really disrupts the flow, especially when you’re not getting any power plays either,” Sexton noted.
While it was far from the prettiest effort, the rebuilding team is beginning to find ways to grind out points when its game isn’t firing on all cylinders.
“We’re learning as a group every single day,” Sexton said. “We went through different experiences, and that was the message to the group after the game: we have to keep learning. The penalties really sucked our energy, but we did a great job getting ourselves out of a 2-0 hole... Again, it’s a new learning experience for the guys every single time.”
Jimmy Lombardi put the Firebirds back on top 3-2 just 31 seconds into the third period, tipping a low point shot from the high slot by Darian Anderson past Nikonovich.
The goal looked destined to stand as the winner until Flint ran into late penalty trouble. A high-sticking infraction to Fellinger and a hooking call on Ryland Cunningham just 55 seconds apart proved costly.
Eamon Edgar circled inside the blue line and fired a cross-ice pass to Mogull at the right faceoff dot, and the first-year winger wasted no time ripping a shot past Courville’s right pad.
“Hopefully, the guys feel the same way — that you’re never out of the fight kind of mentality. We saw that again,” Sexton said. “Everybody’s up on the bench, everybody’s excited, and we’ll get ourselves in that situation. It goes back to the culture that head coach Dylan Smoskowitz and general manager Marty Williamson have established here. We want to play a certain way, and part of that is believing we can go into any building on any night and win.”
With his pair of goals, Mogull extended his hot streak. The Naples, Fla. native now has five goals in his last four games, bringing his season total to six.
“He’s finding a way to have an impact every night,” Sexton said of Mogull. “For somebody like him who doesn’t necessarily kill penalties, having to sit there and watch isn't easy, but he’s a crafty, smart player. Obviously, he has a great shot release, so I’m very happy for him to continue that streak. We’re going to continue to rely on him.”
Barrie is now 2-1-2-0 in its last five games, earning six of a possible 10 points — a massive step forward for a young team that managed just one win in its first 11 games.
“Hopefully, this weekend is something that we can continue to build off of,” Sexton said.
UP NEXT
The run against top competition continues for the Colts with a Wednesday home game against the Sudbury Wolves at Sadlon Arena.
“The only way out is through, and with the parity in the league, anybody can win on any given night,” Sexton said. “There is no easy game in the OHL. Everybody works hard and has individual and team goals, so you’re never going to get anybody’s weak effort.
“We really liked the effort, character, and pride we showed this weekend. There are certain areas we need to continue to improve upon, and that’ll be our focus here for the next couple of days.”
With the exception of playoff games and New Year’s Eve tilts, this week’s game against Sudbury marks the first time in franchise history the Colts will host a Wednesday night regular-season home game.
Meanwhile, the Firebirds are in Sarnia on Sunday afternoon.
ICE CHIPS
Forward Michael Tang picked up an assist and now has a goal and four points over his last three games.
