Winning hockey games is what’s most important for Cole Beaudoin, but the Barrie Colts centre admitted it sure felt good to get back on the scoresheet on Thursday night.
Beaudoin scored twice and was his usual dominant force down low to help the Colts extend their win streak to six games with a 5-3 win over the Ottawa 67’s at Sadlon Arena.
It was the Utah NHL prospect’s first time finding the back of the net in seven games since he scored against the same 67’s the night before heading off to the Canadian National junior team selection camp back on Dec. 8.
“I was kind of in a slump there in not getting one, but at the end of the day the team was winning so that was the most important thing,” said Beaudoin, who has 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points in 31 games. “We were winning, and obviously you want to keep that going, but it was nice to get the monkey off the back and get two (tonight).”
While the hardworking forward hadn’t been filling the net of late, he contributes in so many other ways with his up-and-down, driving game.
“He does so many things well for us,” said Colts’ assistant coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “Any hockey player wants to see results on the scoresheet. As a coaching staff, we’re sitting there thinking ‘Oh my God! Cobo is our driver and he’s doing so many positive things for our hockey club.’
“But the player himself, it’s just human nature to get a little bit frustrated, so for Cobo to get a couple tonight we’re all happy for him. But I know that nobody is happier than Cole Beaudoin.”
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Emil Hemming and Kashawn Aitcheson, with two assists and three points each, and Brad Gardiner, with the game-winner against his former team, also scored for the Colts (30-14-1-1), who moved three points ahead of the Kingston Frontenacs atop the Eastern Conference standings and four points ahead of the Niagara IceDogs atop the Central Division.
Frankie Marrelli, Chase Yanni, and Luca Pinelli scored for Ottawa (15-23-3-5), which remains one point ahead of the North Bay Battalion for the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference.
Only four points separate the top five teams in the conference, including the Oshawa Generals who the Colts hit the road to face Friday night.
“It’s super tight from first to fifth, so anything can switch,” said Beaudoin, who is finally back to full health after suffering an undisclosed injury at the Canadian team’s selection camp in Ottawa. “We can’t change our game and can only worry about ourselves and not what the rest of the league is doing.
“We can only worry about the team. Every single practice we’re working hard and getting better each and every day and learning from our mistakes.”
Hemming opened the scoring on a shorthanded marker a little more than four minutes into the first period, but Marelli got that right back for Ottawa 45 seconds later on the same power play.
Beaudoin put Barrie back on top a little more than two minutes later when he directed in a perfect feed past Ottawa’s Jaden Nelson from Aitcheson on the door-step with Barrie on the power play.
Yanni would tie things up once again for Ottawa later in the first on a three-on-one to cap off a bit of a run and gun first period.
“Even coming into the room after the first period, we as a coaching staff could tell the guys weren’t happy with that,” said Smoskowitz. “It’s not the way we want to play. We don’t want to be trading chances with a team like Ottawa. We don’t want to be trading chances with any team in this league.
“We make our living on our defensive game and our defensive structure, and we did feel like we sharpened things up and shut things down towards the end of the game. It’s going to be a good test tomorrow in Oshawa how much we can really shut things down from the start.”
Barrie would tighten things up in the second. Aitcheson, on the power play, and Gardiner, with just 23 seconds remaining in the frame would give Barrie a 4-2 lead, but Pinelli notched his 27th just 17 seconds later to bring it back to a one-goal lead.
Beaudoin would put it away with 1:35 remaining in the third when he deflected a Hemming point shot past Nelson.
“We were a little sloppy in the first,” said Beaudoin. “There are some mistakes on my end that I need to clean up and things we need to clean up as a team, for sure. We turned it around. We got a talk from Marty (at the end of the first) telling us to play better defence and the offence will come, and that’s exactly what happened.
“Don’t get sloppy in the D-zone because as it showed they got two quick ones there to tie it up, so we need to get that out of our game.”
The win kicked off a busy three-in-three weekend for the Colts that continues tonight in Oshawa and wraps up back home on Saturday night against the Niagara IceDogs.
With two tough games against teams at the top of the conference, the Colts felt it was important to get the weekend off on a positive note.
“Definitely. We wanted to get the momentum rolling,” said Smoskowitz. “If one line is rolling, the second line is rolling, the third line is rolling, and get the fourth line rolling, you want to spread the ice time out when you know you got two big games coming as well.
“Obviously you don’t want to overlook the first game, which I don’t think we did tonight. We picked up our socks and played fairly well in the second half of the game, but when you’re getting contributions from all four lines and three pairs of defencemen it just makes things easier going into games two and three of the weekend.”
Barrie’s trip to Oshawa will be the last regular season game between the two conference heavyweights. The Colts have won all three games against the Generals this season after being eliminated by the conference champions in six games in the opening round of the playoffs last year.
“It’s always fun,” said Smoskowitz of facing the Generals who sit just four points back of Barrie. “Going back to the playoff series last year and going to that building on a Friday night, emotions will be high, and tensions will be high, but we’ve prepared the group well and they’ve prepared themselves well.
“I think our group is really looking forward to the challenge.”
Game time Friday night at the Tribute Communities Centre will be 7:05 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Both Hemming and Aitcheson continued their hot runs of late. Hemming, who now has 11 goals and 30 points in 40 games this season, has five goals and nine points over his last six games. Aitcheson has three goals and 8 points over his last five games. Smoskowitz said it takes time for Europeans like Hemming to adjust to the game over here. “These guys come over from Europe on the bigger ice and are transitioning to the smaller ice now,” he said of the Finnish winger. “He came back after world juniors we think a different player. He’s really motivated. He’s really understanding time and space now on the small ice. You can understand why Dallas liked him so much in that first round of the NHL draft. He’s a real horse for us, right now.”. . . Both Evan Passmore (ill) and rookie forward Jack Martin were out of the Barrie lineup. “He kind of rolled his ankle last week, so he’s walking around a little better and a bit more mobile now,” Smoskowitz said of Martin who has missed the last two games. “We’re hoping he can get back on the ice next week and go from there.”. . . Barrie outshot Ottawa 38-27.
