Life on the road isn’t easy, and right now, the Barrie Colts know that better than any team in the OHL.
The league’s worst road team continued its struggles away from home Thursday night, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Spitfires at the WFCU Centre in Windsor.
The Colts (11-15), who were once again hindered by a struggling power play, dropped all four games on their recent road swing and now have just three wins in 13 games away from home.
“We got to figure it out here,” said Barrie blueliner Olivier Savard. “Five-on-five we’ve been playing well, but our special teams haven’t been great. Our penalty kill hasn’t been perfect, nor our power play, either.
“We got to get back (home Friday) and talk about it and have a good game on Saturday.”
The Colts should be happy to return to the friendly confines of the Sadlon Arena where they’ve posted an 8-5 winning record, unfortunately, they come home to face a Central Division-leading Steelheads team that will be looking for some retribution after dropping two earlier games to Barrie in Mississauga.
“It never gets easy,” said Colts head coach Marty Williamson, whose club has just one win in its last eight road games. “We’re struggling on the road to get road wins, and we go back home and get a home game in front of our crowd, so that’s always a good thing, but Mississauga is a good hockey team.
“It’s the same old, same old. If you want to make mistakes like we’re making right now, it’s hard to win games.”
Jack Nesbitt and Anthony Cristoforo, with power-play markers, Carson Woodall, and Valentin Zhugin, into an empty net, scored the Spitfires (8-18-1-0), who won two straight games for the first time this season.
Cole Beaudoin, with just 30 seconds remaining, scored to spoil Windsor goalie Ian Michelone’s shutout.
The Colts, who trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes, had their chances to score, but a short-circuited power-play couldn’t connect again.
“We had five power-plays, and you’re supposed to generate offence off power plays,” said Williamson, whose club now has just one goal on 30 opportunities with the man advantage over its last seven games.
A lack of discipline and the struggles to kill penalties once again also hurt the Colts. Windsor finished 2-for-6 with the man advantage.
“We’re causing some of our own problems,” said Williamson. “We took a two-man down and the other we lost a stick, which I was upset about. (Nesbitt) popped the stick out of (Jack Brauti’s) hand, and I ended up taking a penalty on it too because I thought it was BS.
“That’s the way the luck is going a little bit. Our penalty kill did a little bit better job. It’s coming. It wasn’t perfect, but the five-on-threes are tough.”
While the Colts have certainly missed injured veterans Beau Akey and Jacob Frasca on their special teams, Savard said that isn’t an excuse for their poor play.
“We’re missing big pieces, but we got to step up,” he said. “Every player needs to step up and play their roles. Even for me, I got to step up. I haven’t been good. We got to start getting better.”
The Colts played without Eduard Sale who took the warmup skate but ended up being a scratch.
“He got hurt up in Sault Ste. Marie (last weekend),” said Williamson of the Seattle Kraken’s top prospect. “We thought he was OK, but when he skated yesterday it bothered him, so we didn’t take a chance today.
“I doubt he’ll play on Saturday. We’ll see. He’ll see a therapist in the morning, and then he’ll have a light skate in the afternoon with us and see how it is. Maybe we’ll give him 10 days off or until his world junior team skates is probably the best thing to do.”
With Sale a scratch, the Colts were short a forward and had to rotate the forwards, affecting chemistry with some lines.
Scoring goals or preventing them, things just aren’t going Barrie’s way right now.
“At times, we’re making the goalie look awfully good and we have to find ways to get it in,” said Williamson. “We hit a bar there and somebody hits a post or crossbar, so (hopefully) we can get a bounce in. If you look at (Wednesday night’s 7-6 loss in Sarnia), the puck goes off the guy’s rear end right to a guy.
“This one, they pop our guy’s stick out and then jam one in. You got to make your own luck and that’s what we’re not doing right now.”
Game time Saturday is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Ben West made 31 saves for the Colts, who were outshot 34-23. . . The Colts did get good news on the injury front with a positive MRI for Frasca (hip). “He’s healed pretty good and there’s no worry of it being worse,” said Williamson. “The MRI was good. He’ll skate hard through next week. He won’t play next weekend, but he’ll be ready for us after Christmas.” . . . Saturday’s game features the annual Teddy Bear Toss. Teddy Bears collected on the ice will be donated to local charities before Christmas. . . Beaudoin has four goals in his last five games.
banner image: courtesy Window Spitfires
