Anthony Romani doesn’t sport a cape or leap tall buildings but put the puck on his stick and special things happen.
After a third-period collapse saw his team blow a 5-1 lead, the red-hot winger came to the rescue, firing home the game-winner with 1:10 remaining to complete a hat trick and lead the Barrie Colts to a 7-5 victory over the Niagara IceDogs, Monday night, at Sadlon Arena.
The win helped the Colts take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round playoff series and hold on to home-ice advantage heading into Game 3 on Tuesday night in St. Catharines.
“We had a good start there, but they came back,” said Romani, who now has five goals in the series and has been named the first star in both Barrie wins. “They’re a skilled team, so we got to know that. Good teams always find a way to win, so we were able to get it done.”
The IceDogs, sparked by a pair of early goals by Ivan Galiyanov a little more than two minutes apart, would score four straight times before the 13:06 mark of the third to draw even.
As they’ve done all series, the line of Dalyn Wakely, Owen Van Steensel, and Romani once again stepped up for the Colts. With overtime looming, Wakely got to a loose puck in the Niagara corner and backhanded it to Van Steensel.
He fed it across to Romani in front, who slid it under Niagara goaltender Owen Flores to send the crowd of 3,258 to their feet. Beau Jelsma's second of the night into an empty net would seal the win with just six seconds remaining.
It was another display of the impressive chemistry the trio has developed over four years of playing together.
“The whole play (was something),” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “Wakely gets it in the corner and finds Van Steensel. Everybody thinks he’s going to shoot, and he finds Romani and that kid just scores goals.
“He just finds ways to get the puck by goalies and it was just a huge goal. It could have been a nightmare loss for us, and it turns into a fun win.”
Romani’s shot just managed to squeak under Flores and then slowly dribble across the goal line.
“It was a weird one,” said the Vancouver Canucks prospect with a huge smile. “I really couldn’t see it because the goalie was in the way and then I saw the other guys celebrate, so I knew it went in. It was a good feeling there.”
Romani continued his torrid scoring pace, with 16 goals and 25 points over his last 14 games.
“I got two good linemates,” he said of Wakely and Van Steensel. “That was a great forecheck by (Wakely) and then the pass by (Van Steensel). They set me up for success there. We got a good team. Good players on our team. It’s easy to play with them.”
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It was a valiant effort by the IceDogs, who were forced to play short due to being disciplined by the league for an incident that sources say happened off the ice last weekend.
Flores had to start the game on the bench and was allowed to come into the game at the start of the second period to replace Finn Moffett, who allowed three goals on 16 shots in his first OHL start.
As well, Kevin He, Ryan Roobroeck, Alex Assadourian, Jack Brauti, and Callum Cheynowski sat out the opening period, while various other players sat out the second or third.
Still, the IceDogs clawed back and even got the bounces when they needed them. Trailing 5-3, Roobroeck threw a puck in front from the high slot that hit the skate of Mathieu Paris and went past Sam Hillebrandt.
After a lengthy review, the goal stood with the officials ruling that Paris did not make a kicking motion.
A determined IceDogs team would completely erase Barrie’s big lead five minutes later on a goal by Andrei Loshko.
“We talked about it and it’s going to be the same thing (Tuesday),” Williamson said of a young IceDogs team that refused to lay down. “They’re not going to quit if you have a lazy period. There were some lucky bounces. I still think (the Paris goal was) a kick. I don’t quite understand it. It’s a foot moving, but not a direction. A direction is when you turn your foot, but we got a couple of calls against us.
“A couple of lucky calls maybe for us. They always balance out, it just seemed that theirs seemed to find a way to get in the back of the net.”
Matthew Virgilio gave Niagara a lead just 24 seconds in, but the Colts would dominate the first period, testing Moffet often and coming away with a 3-1 lead on a pair of goals by Romani and one by Grayson Tiller.
Jelsma and Emil Hemming would add to the lead in the second period, but the IceDogs weren’t ready to roll over.
“They’re a good team. We know that,” said Romani. “They have a lot of skilled guys on that team, so we just got to be ready coming into the third period like that.”
Kashawn Aitcheson was a force all night and would end up being involved in two of the game’s most dramatic moments.
A little more than four minutes in, the top NHL Draft prospect caught Galiyanov with his head down at centre ice and nailed the IceDogs forward in a massive collision that was deemed clean after a lengthy review and would force the Niagara forward to leave the game for a short bit.
Then in the third period, with 4:23 remaining in a tie game, Aitcheson got the puck alone in front and looked to have the winner on his stick when he was robbed by Flores.
The Barrie defenceman pulled the puck to his backhand and looked to have Flores beat when the overage goaltender stretched across the crease to snare what looked like a sure goal with his glove hand.
Aitcheson could only look on in disbelief.
“That save on Aitcheson was huge for them,” said Williamson, whose club outshot Niagara 52-28. “It starts going through your head that maybe we’re not going to get one by him and this thing is slipping away, and then the Wakely line executed for us.”
The two Central Division rivals will go right back at it tonight at the Meridian Centre with the Colts having the opportunity to take a stranglehold on the series.
Ben Hrebik will get the start in net for Barrie.
“They’ll get their fans behind them, and it’ll be a tougher building and that,” said Williamson. “We need to go play 60 minutes. I don’t think we’ve done that in the first or second game.
“I didn’t like our first period in Game 1. I didn’t like our third here, so we need to go play 60 minutes and get the win.”
Romani knows the series will only get tougher and there’s still much work ahead.
“Every game matters here, so we just got to rest up tonight and be ready for (Tuesday),” he said. “We know what kind of skill they have, especially after seeing that third period from them, so we got to be ready to play.”
Game time tonight is 7 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Barrie was 2-for-6 with the man advantage, while Niagara was 2-for-4. “Specialty teams haven’t been that great for us, so we got to get a little better in that,” said Williamson. . . The Colts had a 37-15 edge in shots through two periods. . . Hemming (1G, 2A) and Jelsma (2G, 1A) each had three-point nights. . . Cole Beaudoin, Van Steensel, and Wakely each had two assists. . . Tiller’s goal was the first of his OHL career in the playoffs. . . Hrebik’s start tonight will be his first in the playoffs.
