When it mattered most on Friday night, a tired, sick, and shorthanded Barrie Colts team got a big-time play from three of its big stars to pull one out at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Kashawn Aitcheson fired home the winner 2:03 into overtime off an impressive three-way scoring play to help the Colts grind out a 3-2 decision over the Sudbury Wolves.
With Dalyn Wakely (ankle), Brad Gardiner (food poisoning), and Parker Vaughan (U17s) out of the lineup, and Beau Akey playing under the weather, the Colts (10-5) found a way to get to overtime where Beau Jelsma, Riley Patterson and Aitcheson came through in the clutch with a highlight-reel winner.
Jelsma picked off an Ondrej Molnar pass just inside the Sudbury blueline and slid it up to Patterson racing towards the net. The Vancouver Canucks prospect then released a perfect backhanded pass back across the slot to a streaking Aitcheson who fired it top left corner over Nate Krawchuk’s glove to give Barrie its third win in three tries this season against Sudbury (8-6-2).
“I thought it was an elite play for Jelsma to realize the turnover so quickly and put it onto Patterson’s stick,” said Colts general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “Patterson jumped into the hole and then made that elite pass over to Aitcheson for the one-timer. You couldn’t write it up any better than that.”
Aitcheson knew Patterson would make the right play.
“He’s a high-end player,” Aitcheson said of Patterson, who also had a goal on the night. “In that situation, I know he’s going to make the right play. Whether it’s a shot or a pass, it’s going to be the right one, so I kind of just trusted him with the puck.”
The finish was every bit as good as the setup.
“I was just trying to go anywhere (Krawchuk) wasn’t,” Aitcheson said of his shot. “I was, obviously, trying to pick a corner for sure.”
The goal was Aitcheson’s fourth and the top NHL prospect now has 10 points in 13 games this season.
“He’s got great timing,” Williamson said of Aitcheson knowing when to jump up. “That’s a great three-on-three play and that’s what you have to do. Aitcheson, (Tristan) Bertucci, and Akey have the ability to be game-breakers.”
It was a nice bounce back for the Colts who were coming off a disappointing 4-0 loss in Erie last Saturday.
“It’s a big win for us, especially here on the road,” said Aitcheson. “They have a good crowd here and we’re missing a couple of our big pieces, so that was a good win to get for sure.”
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The Colts built a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Patterson, on the power play, and Cole Beaudoin. The good start continued through the first half of the second with Barrie holding Sudbury to just 8 shots through the first 30 minutes.
Nick DeAngelis breathed life into Sudbury when he beat Sam Hillebrandt at 12:41 of the middle frame. A Kieron Walton one-timer less than four minutes later tied the game and shifted the momentum.
Momentum the Wolves would carry through the third period, where they outshot the Colts 11-4, hitting a post and crossbar late to almost complete the comeback.
“It wasn’t 60 minutes of hockey, but you’ve got a team that’s a little under the weather and you got 30 minutes, and we hung on and found a way to win in overtime,” said Williamson.
After jumping out to an early lead, Aitcheson and his teammates knew the pushback was coming in the second from Sudbury.
“They obviously came out hot in the second and we knew they were going to do that and we just tried to weather the storm there,” he said. “We’re a team that never gives up and we’re going to keep pushing if you battle us.
“Going into overtime we had a lot of confidence, a lot of top-end players, and I think we always have the swagger and the confidence to get the job done.”
With Barrie short, defenceman Justin Handsor played forward, and Colts’ prospect Sam Black made his OHL debut.
“Give the guys credit,” said Williamson. “I grinded two lines at the end there pretty good. They did a job for me, so let’s see what they got for (Saturday), but they’re in the same boat and played the same number of players.”
The Colts and Wolves will complete the home-and-home set tonight in Barrie.
The good news is that there’s a good chance Wakely will return to the lineup.
“We’ll see what he’s like (Saturday) morning,” said Williamson. “He was looking pretty good today.”
Gardiner spent time in the hospital before returning home last night. Williamson expects Gardiner will be out until at least Wednesday.
“They think it’s a food poisoning thing,” said the head coach. “They had him on an IV. He was pretty sick. He couldn’t hold anything down.”
Williamson said it’s not just the Colts going through some tough times with sick players. He points to the Guelph Storm who had seven regulars out of the lineup at one point.
Barrie will once again need a full contribution from its bench, especially playing on back-to-back nights.
“Wakely coming back would be huge and hopefully Akey can hang in there for another game for us, but we do have Handsor,” he said. “You need everybody to contribute. They battled us hard, so there are no excuses here.
“We got to use the energy from our crowd and have a good home game.”
Barrie will have to grind out another one.
“You need everyone chipping in. You need everyone helping out one way or the other,” said Aitcheson. “Whether it’s getting the boys going, a big shot block, a big hit. Just simple plays. It was a great team effort tonight and Sammy played on his head. It was a great game all-around.”
Game time Saturday night at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS:
The Colts can’t seem to put a full lineup together and Williamson admits it’s frustrating. “We’re 10-5, which is a pretty good record, and I don’t think we’ve really scratched the service of getting these guys together for a couple of weeks,” he said. “Even missing Vaughan, he’s been pretty good for us. He’s a guy that I can fly up my lines. He would have been helpful, but he’s at U17s. I still think there are really good things ahead for us with how this team battles.” . . . Williamson pointed out the strong play of Bertucci, especially with Akey not feeling well. “I thought Bertucci had a lot of mileage for us,” he said. “He had a huge, blocked shot when we needed it and he did some good things.” . . . Barrie outshot Sudbury 25-24. . . The Colts were 1-for-4 on the power play, Sudbury was 0-for-3. . . Saturday’s Remembrance Day game will honour former and current military members.
