Gardiner pulls off familiar deke to seal Colts' shootout win in Brampton

Brad Gardiner pulled out an oldie, but a goodie from his bag of moves on Friday night against the Brampton Steelheads to help his Barrie Colts collect an important two points.

Using the same shootout move he made to cap off a huge comeback over Niagara earlier this season, the overage centre scored the lone goal of the penalty shot competition, and goaltender Arvin Jaswal capped off a perfect performance by stopping all three Brampton Steelheads attempts to power the Colts to a 1-0 win at CAA Centre.

After Jaswal stretched out to stop Gabriel Chiarot with a pad save to open the shootout, Gardiner moved in wide down the left side on Luke Johnson and faked to the forehand before pulling it back and backhanding it upstairs over the Steelheads’ netminder.

Jaswal did the rest, stopping two other Brampton shooters to help Barrie (19-9-1-4) increase its lead over the North Bay Battalion to five points atop the Central Division standings.   

Gardiner admits his shootout winner was a replica of the same deke he used in the 6-5 win over Niagara back on October 5.

“I’d be lying if I wasn’t saying I was kind of committing to that,” he said with a huge grin. “I had that in the back of my head as I was going down.”

The veteran has been working with goaltending coach David Belitski before and after practice all season to perfect the move.

“I was just happy to see it go in,” he said.

After struggling in shootouts earlier this season, the Colts have spent a good amount of time watching videos and discussing the approach to breakaway attempts with players.

“Brad’s one of those guys always asking questions,” said Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “He always wants to see more video. He always wants to get more reps after practice. We have to beg our goalies, some days, to stay out there and let Brad shoot on them.

“He puts in the work, and he’s got that move down pat, and it’s good to see.”  

While he may have scored the game-winner, Gardiner said a good deal of the praise on this night should go to his young teammate in net.

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Recording the first shutout of his young career, the Barrie backup stopped all 33 shots he faced, including two huge stops late to get the game into overtime.

Jaswal now sports an impressive 2.55 goals against average and .923 save percentage in 10 games.

“We’re fortunate to have two goalies every night, whether we get outshot or have a slow start, who are always going to keep us in the game. That can steal a game here and there for us when we’re missing a few guys who are off at world juniors,” said Gardiner of Ben Hrebik and Jaswal.

“All of us are confident playing in front of Hrebik or Jazzy.”

The Barrie netminder also helped kill a Brampton power play in overtime, before completing his impressive night in the shootout.

After closing the door on Chiarot on the first attempt, he squeezed the pads on Joshua Avery before clinching the win with a glove-hand stop on Parker von Richter.

 “He was rock solid,” said Smoskowitz of Jaswal’s performance. “Some of those saves were unbelievable. In a 0-0 game when the pressure is on, and they get the four-on-three power play (in overtime), the kid is as cool as a cucumber in there. He goes three-for-three in the shootout.

“He’s playing like a 20-year-old, yet the kid is 17. He just had his 17^th birthday, and he’s NHL eligible. It’s really fun to watch him right now.”

For Smoskowitz, Friday night’s win was a good bounce back after a disappointing 4-1 loss to the Sudbury Wolves at home the night before.

In a tight-checking game where they had to grind it out, the Colts showed great patience. Barrie had its chances to take an earlier lead, and despite going scoreless on four power-play chances, it was effective in creating opportunities.

“We just stuck to the game plan, and patience came with it,” said Smoskowitz. “We were mentally tough and physically tough. Mentally tough with our decisions with the puck, with our shift lanes, and then physically tough with our back check, our puck pursuit, and our box outs in front of the net.

“We were pretty happy with our overall performance tonight.”

The win over Brampton (12-16-3-2) also marked the debut of forward Aleksandr Sementsov. The St. Petersburg, Russia native was Barrie’s 18^th overall pick of the 2025 OHL Priority Selection and had started the season with the OJHL’s Newmarket Hurricanes.  

The winger played on the left wing with overagers Alex Assadourian and Calvin Crombie and even had a chance to clinch the win in the shootout, but was turned aside by Johnson.

“I thought he was great all night,” Smoskowitz said of Sementsov. “Playing with two overagers is not easy. These guys play fast, they play hard. I thought he kept up with the pace and did an admirable job, at that.

“I would have loved for him to score that shootout goal. It would have made the whole night.”

The Colts will close out the first half of the regular season on Saturday night when they host the London Knights.

“We just have to stay focused and not be thinking about Christmas and going back home to see your buddies too much,” said Gardiner. “It’s going to be whatever team wants more, and we’re all excited and hopefully end our (first half) on a good note.”

ICE CHIPS

Barrie co-captains Cole Beaudoin and Kashawn Aitcheson were both officially named to Canada's roster for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Minnesota.

It’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Night on Saturday. Fans are also encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the game to donate to the Barrie Food Bank.

Brampton outshot Barrie 33-32, including 14-8 in the third period.

Both teams were 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

ADD. OHL

Erie 6 Sarnia 2

Kitchener 4 Owen Sound 1

London 5 Oshawa 3

Flint 4 Niagara 3

Ottawa 4 Peterborough 1

Kingston 4 Brantford 2

Sudbury 6 Guelph 2