You have to be at your best to beat the best and the Barrie Colts were far from that against the London Knights on Thursday night.
Barrie native Logan Hawery and Kasper Hulttunen each scored twice and Denver Barkey and Sam O’Reilly had three points to help league-best London snap Barrie’s 10-game point streak with an 8-4 win in front of 4,149 at Sadlon Arena.
In a battle between the top teams in each of the OHL’s conferences, London (41-8-1-0) jumped out of the gate to a 3-1 first-period lead and led all the way through to hand Barrie (33-15-2-1) its first regulation loss in 11 games (9-1-1).
“For whatever reason, I just thought we were low energy tonight,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “I know the flu bug is going through our team a bit, but you can’t make excuses. You go out there and get the job done.
“We just didn’t seem to have the energy to be consistent with everything. We showed little flashes, but you just can’t play like that with that kind of team. They had high energy, and we had low energy and that’s just a bad combination.”
Three times the Colts got the Knights’ lead down to a goal, but they couldn’t draw even before the CHL’s top ranked team scored three times in a little more than three minutes midway through the third period to put the game away.
“They’re a great team,” said Colts’ winger Anthony Romani, whose rifle-like release to the top corner brought the home side to within 3-2 early in the second frame. “They’re one of the top teams in the league, so we know who we have to compete with.
“That wasn’t our best tonight. We know what we’re working for now.”
Blake Montgomery, Denver Barkey, William Nicholl, and Landon Sim also scored for the Knights, who outshot the Colts 54-28.
Emil Hemming, with his sixth goal in seven games, Riley Patterson and Ethan Armstrong, with his first OHL goal, also got on the board for the Colts, who remain tied with the Oshawa Generals atop the Eastern Conference standings with one game in hand and two points ahead of both the Brantford Bulldogs and Kingston Frontenacs.
“A lot was self-inflicted,” Williamson said of the Knights being able to keep a distance. “Just bad mistakes, shorthanded goals, and really poor play. We just made some poor plays that really kind of cost us.
“As I said, when you got low energy, you got low brain energy that goes along with it and that’s what I thought. We were just too average in too many spots.”
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The Colts just couldn’t seem to gain any kind of momentum whenever they got within a goal.
The best opportunity may have been early in the third. Down 5-3, they killed off the remaining 27 seconds on a Romani slashing penalty and then Gabriel Eliasson’s roughing penalty before Armstrong’s shot from the point beat London goaltender Austin Ellitott at 5:49.
But any boost the Colts got off the young blueliner’s first OHL goal would be short-lived as a little more than two minutes later William Nichol wired a high drive over the net that hit the glass behind the net and rebounded back and off the back of Hrebik and in.
“It was that kind of night, but I don’t know how many breaks we deserve,” said Williamson. “You don’t get breaks like that in games when you’re on your heels most of the game. It was unfortunate that one went off his back there and we gave up another quick one and that was the end of the game.
“For as sick as we were, I thought we battled. It was one of those games that I just got a bad gut feeling from the beginning.”
Sim and Hawery, with his second, then scored 35 seconds apart to put this one on ice.
“We were in the game there,” said Romani. “Obviously those bounces happen, and I think it’s unfortunate, but we got to find a way to bounce back. It was only a two-goal game there and we let it get out of our hands there.
“They deserve that win. With or without bounces, we got to do better.”
London used their speed through the neutral zone and constant movement in the offensive end to create havoc for the Colts.
“The problem was I thought we were really poor through the neutral zone,” said Williamson. “We had no speed in the neutral zone and just allowed them so much possession. We weren’t forcing them to dump it in. They were able to carry pucks in.
“There were a lot of odd-man rushes, more than we ever give up. You can never put your finger on one thing. I thought it was a combination of things.”
The Colts continued a busy long weekend on Saturday night when they play host to the North Bay Battalion, before heading to Kingston for a Monday afternoon game.
“North Bay plays hard,” said Williamson. “If you don’t play high energy against them, they’ll do the same thing. They’re a tough match. You get right back on (the horse) and then you go to Kingston, and you know how good they are.”
With the standings as tight as they are, the Colts know they have to get back to their winning ways.
“It’s a tight conference, so every point matters,” said Romani. “North Bay is a good team, so it’s going to be a good one on Saturday and we got to come out ready.”
Game time at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: The Colts will be without Tristan Bertucci for quite some time after the defenceman came down with mono. It’s a huge blow for the Colts as the Stars prospect was playing his best hockey of the season. “He was a rock back there for us,” said Williamson. “We got to make up 20 minutes a night with those other guys. It’s a development league and it’s good to get some ice time. Armstrong got some more ice time and (Justin) Handsor got some more ice time. The other guys have to really clamp down on their games and give us a good effort consistently every night.” . . . Williamson was happy for Armstrong scoring his first OHL goal in his fifth game. “It was his first and it was a big goal,” said the bench boss. “It got us right back into the game and it got the building a little lively. Unfortunately, we couldn’t build off it.” . . . Barkey’s shorthanded marker with 1:33 left in the second was another key point in the contest. The Knights moved ahead 5-3 instead of the Colts having a key opportunity to tie it. . . London was 1-for-5 on the power play, while Barrie was scoreless on four chances.
