Riding a three-game losing streak, the Barrie Colts headed into Thursday night’s action against the Erie Otters looking to strike a winning chord.
Unfortunately for them, like last weekend the song remains the same.
Pano Fimis and Carey Terrance scored a minute apart early in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and Barrie’s major struggles on specialty teams continued to lead the visiting Otters to a 4-2 win at Sadlon Arena.
Like Barrie’s three losses last weekend, the specialty teams once again proved to be the difference.
The OHL’s worst penalty kill gave up two more goals and the power play came up short on a late two-man advantage in the third to spoil what was a decent effort for Barrie five-on-five.
“They’ve been a top-five (power play) and we talked about it,” Colts head coach Marty Williamson said of trying to get his team to stay out of the penalty box. “I thought we had such a good second period. I actually liked both our periods. We played real well, then we come out and take the penalty and missing an assignment allows a shot to go in, and then just a poor shift after that where we left a guy wide open in front of the net.
“The game just gets away from you real quick.”
All even to start the third, a tripping penalty to Jacob Frasca put Erie on the power play. Brett Bressette, from the corner, slid it back to Fimis who rifled a one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle to beat Ben West on the low right side and put the Otters on top.
With Barrie (4-6) on its heels, Erie (4-6-1) came right back the next shift when Terrance, with his first of two on the night, scored the eventual winner off a Barrie turnover in the corner. Kaleb Smith found him all alone in front of the net and the Anaheim Ducks prospect outwaited West to make it 3-1.
“They have a good power play over there. They’re among the top in the league,” Colts captain Connor Punnett said of Erie’s fourth-ranked power play. “We get that goal to tie it up and we go into the third and it’s just one of those things where we weren’t ready to play.
“We came out and fell asleep for four minutes and they got two goals and that cost us the game essentially.”
The Colts would get a two-man advantage with less than seven minutes remaining, but once again would come up short on another key opportunity.
Beau Akey would cut the lead to one on the remaining five-on-four power-play time when his high-rising shot from the left faceoff circle beat Gaudreau, but it was as close as they would get.
Erie shut things down and Terrance sealed the win into an empty net with 52 seconds remaining.
“We didn’t get a real good look there at the end,” said Williamson. “I didn’t like the five-on-three power play, I thought we needed to get something there. We did get one on the five-on-four there, but we’re just struggling to score goals. We don’t seem to have chemistry right now in the offensive part of the game. We work hard for chunks of the game, but we’re struggling for 60 minutes.
“There’s a lot of youth. . . the guys just quite haven’t picked up the pace right now that we need them at.”
It’s clear things just aren’t going Barrie’s way right now. Pucks are hopping over sticks, passes just out of reach on great scoring chances.
“It’s the hardest thing,” said Williamson, who could see the frustration in his players. “You tell them to relax, but you know nobody wants to win more than those guys. Even with the way they played for a big chunk of the game shows how hard they want to play, but we get behind by a goal and all of a sudden, they start thinking about losing rather than making a play and those bad things happen.
“When you think about those bad things, it just seems like they happen.”
Punnett believes a turnaround is coming.
“Our five-on-five play has been pretty good, the stats are showing it,” he said. “Our specialty teams are failing a little bit. Lots of new faces, lots of new bodies, guys playing different positions. I think it’s just a little bit of a learning curve, a little bit of adversity.
“I think it may take a little time, but at the end of the day if we can stay out of the box and play five-on-five hockey we can get back in some of these games.”
Erie, which was riding its own two-game skid, opened scoring with a little more than a minute remaining in the first period on a power-play goal by Bruce McDonald.
The Colts would draw even just past the midway mark of the second with their own power-play marker. Tai York slid it back to Cole Beaudoin, who wired one past the left pad of Ben Gaudreau.
Beaudoin’s goal seemed like one of the few times Barrie was willing to fire at the net with the man advantage. The struggling club is often looking for the perfect setup to score instead of just getting some traffic to the front and pucks to the net.
“And look how we scored? We took a shot,” Williamson said of the power-play goals by Beaudoin and Akey. “One goal was an Akey slapshot and he scores on it. He puts it on net. I think, in part, that’s our five-on-five. We just don’t put enough pucks to the net and have enough people there. Score some ugly goals and that kind of stuff to get consistent with that. You know, we’re fighting it right now.”
Things don’t get any easier for the Colts who are playing a three-in-three set for the second-straight weekend.
Barrie heads to Mississauga Friday night to face a Steelheads club (9-2) that sits atop the OHL standings. Only Kitchener and Sault Ste. Marie have scored more goals.
The Central rivals also boast the league’s third-ranked power-play right now.
“They’re playing as good as anybody, so you better be on your toes and put this one behind us,” said Williamson. “These three-in-threes, they just keep coming at you. We’ll take Mississauga on. We’ll go there, build on our five-on-five again. We did score a couple of power-play goals, but we better stay out of the box because Missy’s power-play is going well too.”
Punnett believes he and his teammates can be better.
“Everybody can beat everybody, so if we show up ready to play (Friday) we can do some damage,” said the overager. “If we show up to play, we’ll show we can really play in this league.”
Game time tonight at Paramount Fine Foods Centre is 7 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Barrie finished 2-for-5 on the power play, while Erie was 2-for-6. . . The Otters outshot the Colts, 29-23, including 11-3 in the third. . . Jacob Frasca returned to the Barrie lineup after missing one game with a hip injury. . . Anson Thornton (broken finger) has joined the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League after missing the last four weeks. The Colts still aren’t sure if the Arizona Coyotes will be returning the overage goaltender to junior. “He’s just been sent to Tucson and he’s just starting to play,” said Williamson. “They want to evaluate him and then they’ll see if he comes back or not.” . . . Oro-Medonte native Wesley Royston was held off the scoresheet, but the Otters rookie winger was a physical presence all night.
banner image: Terry Wilson, OHL Images
