Cole Beaudoin wasn’t pulling any punches after the Barrie Colts' disappointing 7-6 loss to the Sarnia Sting, Wednesday night, at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena.
Facing a Sarnia club that sits near the bottom of the OHL standings (11-17) with just one win in its last 10 games, the Colts would blow a two-goal lead three times, including once in the third period.
It was as ugly a finish as Barrie (11-14) has had this season.
“Not our greatest performance. We need to be better,” said Beaudoin,” who had a power-play goal and assist on the night. “We need to play way better in the defensive zone. It’s unacceptable from our whole team. We can’t dwell on it now. We just need to move forward in Windsor (tonight)”
Poor defensive play, a struggling penalty kill, and bad penalties, especially in the third period, did in Barrie and left head coach Marty Williamson fuming after the game.
“Stupid penalties and if there’s a way to lose right now, we’re finding it,” he said. “We did something well to give ourselves opportunity and a lead in the second, and a lead in the third. Obviously, everyone on the bench knows we’re struggling to kill penalties, and yet we go out there to slash a guy to go five-on-three, slash a guy to go down in a tie game. Just stupid hockey.”
Up 6-4 after Roenick Jodoin’s second goal of the game 16 seconds into the third, a lack of discipline would cost the Colts dearly.
With Nolan Newton off for tripping and Tai York off for slashing, the Sting capitalized on the ensuing two-man advantage when Sandis Vilmanis scored at 4:59.
Tyson Doucette tied the game midway through the third and then a little less than two minutes later Jacob LeBlanc, with the Sting back on the power play, scored the winner.
“We had the momentum and both guys took a penalty and that’s where all of a sudden the game kind of changed a little bit,” said Williamson. “Those are the types of things that should be so important to you when you know we’re struggling (with the penalty kill) that you don’t want to think about doing anything like that.
“Tai York’s careless, (Shamar) Moses is careless. (Nolan) Newton I don’t even know what he was doing on the play. Just dumb mistakes.”
Sarnia would score three times on five chances on the man advantage. Opposing teams have now scored a whopping 14 times on 26 power-play opportunities over the last six games.
Only the Erie Otters (33) have been scored on more times than Barrie (30) while shorthanded.
“We need to be disciplined,” said Beaudoin. “There’s a lot of good power plays out there, but even then, when we take a penalty, our penalty kill needs to step up and be better. Personally, I need to block more shots and need to step up for the team and be a leader.
“It killed us tonight.”
The Jekyll and Hyde season continues for the young club. They play determined, gritty hockey one night and then follow it up with a game filled with bad decisions and simple mistakes.
“There’s definitely times where we’re moving, we’re in the offensive zone cycling pucks and playing our systems and then I don’t know what happens,” said Beaudoin, who now has six points (3G, 3A) in his last four games. “We just break down and careless turns to bad and it’s not good. We need to get that out of our game.
“Yeah, we’re young, but we can’t use that as an excuse. We need to be better. We need to move forward and be more of a group because there’s a lot of outliers, and it’s not good. We need to build together as a group, and hopefully get stronger.”
Leblanc led the Sting attack with two goals and two assists. Mitch Young, Cooper Way, and Dennis Lominac also scored for the Sting, who led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
Beau Jelsma, Grayson Tiller, and Chris Grisolia also scored for Barrie, which scored three times a little more than eight minutes into the second to grab a 4-2 lead.
“Right now, our young guys shouldn’t be playing in the league the way they played tonight,” said Williamson. “We can handle mistakes and that, but there were some faceoffs where guys didn’t know what they were doing. They’re just not focused.”
The Colts continue to struggle on the road. Barrie has won just three times in 12 games away from home.
“Some nights it’s not our work ethic that is the problem, it’s our mental approach to the game,” said Williamson. “Whether you want to say that’s (because we’re) young, it’s just not good enough.”
The Colts will play their fourth-straight game on the road when they take on the Windsor Spitfires on Thursday night.
After beating Windsor at home 4-1 last Thursday, the Colts will look to sweep the season series against the OHL’s last place team.
“You got to have a short memory and throw this one in the past, even though it’s a really unfortunate loss,” said Beaudoin.
Game time at the WFCU Centre is 7:05 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: The Colts return to Sadlon Arena Saturday night to host the Mississauga Steelheads in the annual Teddy Bear Toss Game. Teddy Bears collected on the ice will be donated to local charities before Christmas. Game time is 7:30 p.m. . . Sam Hillebrandt got the start for Barrie and was pulled at 12:12 of the third period after giving up seven goals on 29 shots. Ben West made one save the rest of the way. Sarnia starter Nick Surzycia was pulled 16 seconds into the third after giving up six goals on 25 shots. Logan Phillips stopped all 10 shots the rest of the way to pick up his first OHL win. . . Tiller was named the Westland Insurance Community Player of the Month for November for his work with the Adopt A School program. . . Connor Punnett and Carter Lowe each had two assists for Barrie.
banner image: courtesy Sarnia Sting
