GAME SUMMARY
Barrie, Ont. — OHL Saturday night:
First Period
No scoring
Penalties — Green Bra (high-sticking) 5:56, Nyman Bra (holding) 14:15.
Second Period
1. Brampton, Kuryachenkov 8 (Gee, Nyman) 7:12
2. Barrie, Schneid 9 (Lombardi, Mowrey) 13:38
3. Barrie, Lowe 7 (Shirochenkov, Edgar) 18:01 (pp)
Penalties — Cartwright Bra (roughing), Edgar Bar (double roughing) 3:43, Nikonovich Bar (tripping) 14:05, Richmond Bra (hooking) 17:33.
Third Period
4. Brampton, Carcone 5 (Stankoven) 2:46
5. Brampton, Witkowski 5 (Kuryachenkov, Cameron) 8:27
6. Barrie, Lowe 8 (Schneid, Edgar) 10:58
Penalties — Matheson Bar (tripping) 0:18, Handsor Bar (holding) 14:32, Green Bra (roughing) 15:05, Gee Bra (tripping) 16:51.
Overtime
No scoring.
Penalties — None.
Shootout
Barrie wins 1-0
Brampton 0 — Amidovski, miss; Ardagh, miss; Witkowski, miss; Kuryachenkov, miss; Carcone, miss.
Barrie 1 — Edgar, miss; Shirochenkov, miss; Mogull, miss; Lowe, miss; Matheson, goal.
Shots on goal by
Brampton 12 14 15 3—44
Barrie 7 16 7 1—32
Goal (shots-saves) — Brampton: Ahmajarvi (SOL,4-9-1-2); Barrie: Nikonovich (W,4-5-2-0).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brampton: 0-4; Barrie: 1-5.
Referees — Tyson Stewart, Blake Beer. Linesmen — Will Dykeman, Jacob Swackhamer.
Attendance — 3,904 (4.195)
ADD. OHL
Niagara 5 Erie 4 (SO)
Brantford 9 Oshawa 3
Flint 4 Windsor 1
Owen Sound 3 Guelph 2
Saginaw 6 London 5
Lucas Matheson reached into his bag of tricks in the shootout and handed the Barrie Colts their first winning week of the season.
With a magical move that is certain to find its way into weekly OHL highlight reels, the rookie blueliner potted the lone goal of a five-round shootout to give the Colts a 4-3 win over the Brampton Steelheads, bringing the home crowd of 3,904 at Sadlon Arena to its feet on Saturday night.
Matheson walked in and went through the motion of shooting the puck. Instead, he gently pushed it forward and backhanded it into a wide-open right side of the net. The play completely fooled Brampton goaltender Oskari Ahmajarvi and a good portion of the spectators.
“I’ve done it before,” the Colts’ 17th overall pick in the 2026 OHL Priority Selection said while flashing an ear-to-ear grin. “I did it last year in minor hockey, and it worked. I’ve always just kind of messed around with it in practice, so I’m pretty confident with it. I decided to go with that.”
Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz had seen his young defenceman pull off the exact same move with the U16 Barrie Colts.
“It’s a cool one,” said Smoskowitz. “There was a video that kind of went viral of him doing that move, and he really sold it well and scored. Man, when you sell it like that, no goalie has a chance. He had half the net to shoot at today, so for a 16-year-old kid, in front of a packed crowd, to have the guts to do that is pretty impressive.”
His Colts teammates had been wanting him to use it against the Steelheads, and Matheson said he has worked plenty on perfecting the move.
“Just in my garage, messing around with pucks, and then after practices,” said the 16-year-old, who scored his first OHL goal Friday night in Kitchener. “It’s just something I mess around with when I’m kind of just playing with the pucks. So, I just got the hang of it over time, and I’ve gotten pretty confident with it.”
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Goaltender Matvei Nikonovich then snared Geno Carcone’s shot with his glove hand in the ensuing shootout attempt to seal the win and give Barrie (5-14-3-0) two victories out of three games on the week.
They nearly had their first perfect week of the season, but couldn’t hang on to a 2-0 lead heading into the third period against the Rangers in a 4-2 loss the night before.
“Getting two out of three wins is huge, and even Friday we played two really good periods of hockey and then just one period that wasn’t great,” said Matheson, whose team opened the week with a come-from-behind 4-3 overtime win in Owen Sound on Wednesday. “I think we’re playing a lot better. We’re finding our style of play and really rolling with it.”
Smoskowitz will gladly take the winning week, especially after his young club battled back from a 3-2 deficit in the third against Brampton (5-13-1-2).
“You tell me for the rest of the season, we can win two of three games every week? Oh, man, I’ll sign up for that anywhere you want me to,” said the Barrie bench boss. “That’s a pretty good week for us. Again, even the game in Kitchener we let slip away, I really liked most of our effort that night. So, good for the guys to get a day off here. Enjoy the points, and then right back to work on Monday for a big three-in-three coming up next weekend.”
After a scoreless first period, Brampton’s Stepan Kuryachenkov opened the scoring off a miscue by Nikonovich. Reed Gee dumped the puck into the corner, and the Barrie netminder moved out of his net to clear it, but he fired it right to the Russian import, who corralled it and fired it home a little more than seven minutes into the second.
The Colts roared back a few minutes later with goals just over four minutes apart from William Schneid and Carter Lowe (on the power play).
They carried the lead into the third, but it proved to be short-lived. Carcone drew the Steelheads even at 2:16, and Kieran Witkowski tapped one in at the side of the crease a little over five minutes later to put them back on top.
For a young club that has watched games slip through its fingers in the third period, including the previous night in Kitchener, the Colts dug deep.
Eamon Edgar raced up the right side and slid a pass over to Schneid, who found Lowe charging toward the net to help Barrie draw even.
“Our coaching staff has really instilled it in us,” Matheson said of the team’s resilience. “We battle all game long. We never give up. So, we’re going to stick with it all game long. Even if we’re down at one point, we’ll always work it back.”
There was no panic. Barrie stuck to the plan and found a way to get the job done.
“The big message going into the third was, ‘Let’s not be scared. You know, whatever happens here, let’s not be scared. Let’s play like it’s a 0-0 game,’” said Smoskowitz.
After getting burned for three power-play goals in the third period in Kitchener the night before, Barrie successfully killed off both Brampton man-advantages in the final frame.
“I’m really proud of the guys for, again, sticking with it,” said Smoskowitz. “Very similar to the Owen Sound game. We stuck with it. You learn a hard lesson in Kitchener, a couple of bad bounces here and there, and it could have been a perfect weekend, six-for-six in points, but we’ll take four out of six.”
LOWE CONTINUES HOT HAND
With his two goals on the night, Lowe now has five goals and seven points in his last four games. The veteran forward brings eight goals and 16 points through 22 games and plays the left side on Barrie’s top line alongside Schneid and Edgar.
Together, the trio has combined for eight goals and 10 assists over the past four games.
“He was a massive part of what we were last year, but he always was kind of a supporting cast to the big guns,” Smoskowitz said of Lowe. “Now, he’s kind of our big gun, and he’s doing a great job. Not only on the ice, but off the ice. What a lot of people don’t see is that Lowe’s a great dressing room guy.
“He’s very positive, brings the young guys along, and is everyone’s good buddy in that room, so we’re just really lucky that Carter Lowe is a part of this team.”
NIKONOVICH "A WINNER' BETWEEN THE PIPES
Nikonovich delivered another stellar effort between the pipes, stopping 41 of 44 shots and all five shootout attempts to improve his record to 4-5-2-0.
“He’s a winner. The kid just wins,” Smoskowitz said of the Pittsburgh Penguins prospect and Belarus import. “He finds ways. He goes into Owen Sound and lets in three in the first period and then gets a shutout the rest of the way through. He wins a big game in overtime after a big save.
“Tonight, he comes into that third period, lets in two quick ones — probably would like to have that first one back, too, when he mishandled that puck — but man, you make that many saves, you go perfect in the shootout, what more can you ask for?”
UP NEXT
Barrie faces its first three-in-three weekend of the season. They host the Flint Firebirds at on Thursday night, before heading to Guelph on Friday, and then returning home on Saturday to host Kitchener Rangers.
Meanwhile, Brampton hosts the Peterborough Petes on Sunday afternoon.
ICE CHIPS
The Colts held a special pre-game ceremony to celebrate the raising of both their 2025-26 Central Division and Eastern Conference championship banners.
The win moved Barrie into a tie with Brampton for ninth place in the conference.
After the game, the team presented its bulletproof vest to head athletic therapist Alex Crouse in honour of his mother, who recently rang the hospital bell after completing cancer treatment.
