On a night the Barrie Colts put in a good effort, the big guns from the Sudbury Wolves just proved to be too much.
Quentin Musty (San Jose Sharks) scored twice and added four assists and along with David Goyette (Seattle Kraken) and Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues) the NHL prospects combined for five goals and 13 points to help the Wolves overpower the Colts 7-3, Thursday night, at Sadlon Arena.
A young Colts team fought hard to make it a game, but the talented Wolves trio helped one of the OHL’s top-scoring teams keep a step ahead and polish off a third-straight game with seven goals scored.
“It’s hard to play against that team,” said Colts forward Tai York, who had a pair of goals and an assist in the loss. “They loaded up at the trade deadline, and we took younger guys, so it’s definitely harder to play against those guys. They’re definitely high-rated players. It’s a hard battle with them.”
The Colts (15-22-1-0) found themselves chasing the Eastern Conference leading Wolves (22-13-3-2) all night, falling behind early only to battle back twice to even things 2-2 after the first period on a power-play goal by York and Cole Beaudoin’s team leading 18th of the season.
Sudbury would roar back in the second with markers by Matthew Mania and Dvorsky and Musty, each with their second of the night, to take a 5-2 lead and grab control of the contest.
York would score his ninth late in the same frame, but it would be as close as Barrie would get.
“I got no problem with our game,” said Colts head coach Marty Williamson, whose club remains four points behind Peterborough for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings. “I thought we battled hard, and we made a couple of mistakes and they’re just too good a team to do that. They make you pay with their big guns like Musty, and Dvorsky when you give them opportunities, but I thought we did a lot of good things too.
“That’s a game you can grow on. It’s a good game for us because we find out who can play in games like that and who struggles, and that’s what we kind of need to do with this team going forward to get them ready for next year.”
The Colts pressed to get back in the contest and had a perfect opportunity to do that late in the contest when the Wolves ran into penalty trouble, resulting in a lengthy two-man advantage. Marcus Vandenberg, though, would hold the fort before David Goyette, into an empty net, and Nick Yearwood scored 13 seconds apart to seal Barrie’s third-straight loss.
“That two-man advantage is where we kind of let ourselves down a little bit,” said Williamson. “You got to execute that. We had time on the clock to get quality shots and with good screens, and we just didn’t do it.
“We overpassed the puck, and we didn’t get to our spots, and it just costs you a game like that.”
The Colts, who rallied for a 4-3 shootout win the last time these two teams met here on Dec. 28, will host the Niagara IceDogs Saturday night before wrapping up the weekend in Sudbury on Sunday afternoon.
“It sucks,” York said of coming up short on the power play late. “We had that five-on-three, and we just couldn’t capitalize. We played pretty well, Marty said we had a good game, but we just got to minimize the mistakes and from there hopefully we can get them on Sunday.”
Before that, the Colts will be looking to avenge a 4-1 loss on the road last week to the IceDogs, but more importantly, get a much-needed two points against their Central rivals who sit just three points behind them.
“We got to build on what we did here and kind of not let ourselves look at who we’re playing, and not be one of those teams that plays hard against a top team and then plays a different kind of game against a team that’s right there with us that’s fighting for a playoff spot,” said Williamson.
Game time Saturday is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson delivered a clean thunderous open-ice hit late in the third on Nathan Villeneuve that knocked the Wolves forward out. A stretcher was brought out, but Villeneuve, with some help, was able to get up and get off the ice. Villeneuve, though, appeared really groggy. . . The line of Riley Patterson, York and Beaudoin combined for three goals and six points and have played really well since being put together almost two months ago. “They sure have,” said Williamson. “They’ve got good chemistry and they’re a good group, and they communicate really well. That’s one of the things I like about them on the bench, how they communicate with each other. They enjoy playing with each other and you can see it.” . . Patterson and Beau Jelsma each had two assists for Barrie. . . Vandeberg stopped 37 of 40 shots to get the win, while Sam Hillebrandt made 36 saves for Barrie. . . A special pregame ceremony was held for Hillebrandt and Sudbury goalie Jakub Vondras honouring their medal wins at the world junior hockey championships. Hillebrandt won gold with team U.S.A. and Vondras and Czechia captured the bronze. . . Carter Lowe’s stick went into the crowd late in the game and while his stick was retrieved by the team from the boy drawing a little ire from the fans, he and his family got to go down to the Barrie dressing room after the game and meet players while being presented with another team stick.
banner image: The Barrie Colts
