Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the opposing goaltender.
Thursday night at Sadlon Arena was one of those times.
Stepan Shurygin turned aside big scoring chance after big scoring chance, and 38 shots in all, to earn first-star honours in a 2-1 overtime win over the Barrie Colts.
The six-foot-five, 205-pound Samara, Russia native came up with several big stops to get his team into the extra frame, before Carson Harmer fired the winner into the top glove-hand corner at 2:53 to help the Spirit (7-8-3-2) put an end to its three-game losing skid.
Barrie (9-7-1-4) outshot its opponents 39-28, but Shurygin was clearly the story on this night for a Saginaw team that came in having given up an OHL high 85 goals in 19 games.
“He did,” Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz said of Shurygin when asked if he made some big stops. “Both goalies played well, actually. I thought Ben (Hrebik) wasn’t tested as much as he was over in the Soo, but he did have some quality chances against him. He played well, and their goalie played well.
“We were moving the puck, and we were generating chances. It just wasn’t our night to bury it. Then in overtime, kind of a back-and-forth game, and they get the last laugh.”
As three-on-three overtimes often go, a missed chance at one end led to the winner at the other.
After Shurygin turned away the Colts, Harmer and Egor Barabanov raced the other way on a two-on-one.
Harmer used his teammate as a decoy and instead picked the top corner to send Barrie to its second-straight defeat in extra time.
“It was a really good shot,” said Smoskowitz. “It almost seemed like it was going to be a really garbagy goal that was going to win it tonight, or a perfect shot. That’s exactly what he needed to beat Ben.
“You go into overtime like that, you’re taking your chance at one end, and they get the chance at the other end. It’s anybody’s game at that point, but I did like our 60 minutes.”
On a night where they likely deserved better, the Colts ran into a hot goaltender. While they got stronger as the game moved on, so did Shurygin.
“We were sticking to our game plan,” said Barrie veteran forward Bode Stewart. “We were working our tail off. Bounces weren’t going our way. We couldn’t finish it out.”
Barrie had no shortage of chances in this one, even without their top goal scorer in Kashawn Aitcheson. Both Aitcheson and fellow blueliner Gabriel Eliasson were serving the first game of a two-game suspension handed to them in the loss last Saturday in Sault Ste. Marie.
Rookie Noah Barton, playing only his second game, stepped into the lineup on the blueline along with Ethan Armstrong.
“As the game went on, I never felt that we needed more, or that we weren’t doing enough,” said Smoskowitz. “I was really happy with our effort. I was really happy with our defensive races. I was happy with our puck movement in the offensive zone. I thought our defensive play, with the addition of those two guys today, was exceptional.
“I thought some guys really stepped up, but again it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
A slow start resulted in the Colts falling behind early in this one. Jacob Cloutier, left all alone in front, beat Hrebik at 8:49 of the opening period, and Shurygin took it from there.
“He played well,” Stewart said of Shurygin. “I felt like we had a slow start and came on in the second. Unfortunately, we couldn’t close it out, but I felt we bounced back after that slow first.”
The 2025 second-round Russian import pick kept Barrie off the scoreboard until the final minute of the second, when Barrie capitalized on a turnover in the Saginaw end.
Nikita Klepov had the puck on his stick with 41 seconds remaining in the period when Brad Gardiner appeared to surprise him from behind and knock the puck away.
It went straight to Stewart in the slot, who wired one past the left pad of the Russian netminder. Shurygin had little time to react.
“I got to give credit to Gardiner for that,” Stewart said of the tying goal, his second of the season. “It was a great forecheck. He made him turn the puck over, and then I just tried to pick a corner.
“I’m happy I got it past him.”
The Colts now have at least one point in their last eight games and now find themselves alone atop the Central Division standings, a point ahead of the Niagara IceDogs. The IceDogs, though, have three games in hand.
“One point is huge,” said Stewart. “We’re playing really well, and we want to keep that going. Our goal is to get two points instead of one, so that’s what we’re going to keep working at.”
The Barrie power play, which came into the night ranked fourth overall, went scoreless on three chances. It was the first time in six games they had failed to score with a man advantage.
“You take one guy off (Aitcheson), and it seems like everyone else is out of sorts,” said Smoskowitz. “It kind of happens like that, when you have five guys on a unit really clicking together, and jelling and in sync.
“We got one more game without those guys in the lineup. We’ll go back to the drawing board with the power play Saturday against Peterborough, and hopefully we get on the board then.”
The Colts now face a streaking Petes team that has won five straight games.
“We have (Friday) to kind of reset and maybe fire up some video, and get stuck in for a big one Saturday,” said Stewart. “We want those two points.”
Game time Saturday at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Arvin Jaswal, who has been out with an unspecified injury, could return on Saturday. “He actually might be cleared for Saturday,” Smoskowitz said of the goaltender. “He’s got a doctor’s appointment (Friday). Hagen Bach, who has been with the team for over a week now, is going to go back to Collingwood and play Friday night. He’ll return if Jaswal isn’t ready to return. . . After a steady parade to the box over the last few weeks, the Colts were shorthanded just twice on Thursday. Barrie’s penalty kill has now moved up to 16th overall after blanking Saginaw. . . Cole Beaudoin had his 10-game point streak (5-15-20) come to an end.
