GAME SUMMARY
Sudbury, Ont. — OHL Friday night:
First Period
1. Sudbury, Provorov 1 (Kwajah, Adams) 6:25
2. Sudbury, Kwajah 1 (Ladds) 14:29
Penalties — Mogull Bar (hooking) 10:43, Desiderio Bar, G. Ula Sud (roughing) 20:00.
Second Period
3. Barrie, Mogull 1 (Matheson, Edgar) 4:55 (pp)
4. Barrie, McCormick 1 (Edgar) 9:00
5. Sudbury, P. Ula 2 (Greene) 12:46
Penalties — Figliomeni Bar, Gonchar Sud, Kearns Sud (roughing) 3:32, Kearns Sud (interference, game misconduct) 15:26.
Third Period
6. Sudbury, Lemieux 1 (Provorov, Chovan) 0:55
7. Sudbury, Kwajah 2 (Henderson, Clayton) 19:19
Penalties — Kwajah Sud (slashing) 4:45, Passmore Bar (check to the head) 7:42, Lombardi Bar (interference) 12:23, Lombardi Bar (misconduct), Passmore Bar (fighting), Adams Sud (slashing, fighting), Lemieux Sud (misconduct) 12:51.
Shots on goal by
Barrie 9 14 8—31
Sudbury 14 13 11—38
Goal (shots-saves) — Barrie: Nokonovich (L,0-1-0-0); Sudbury: Frasca (W,3-0-0-0).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Barrie: 1-4; Sudbury: 0-4.
Referees — Andre Grougrou, Kyle Whiteman. Linesmen — Blake Wisniewski, Charlie Giesler.
Attendance — 2,825 (4,640)
OTHER SCORES
Brantford 5 Peterborough 2
Erie 4 Kitchener 3
London 7 Owen Sound 4
Sarnia 5 Kingston 3
Saginaw 5 Sarnia 3
Flint 4 Windsor 2
Guelph 6 Oshawa 0
Soo 6 Brampton 3
Coming off a tough 6-0 shutout loss to the Sudbury Wolves (3-0-0-0) on Saturday at home, the Barrie Colts (0-3-0-0) turned in a much better performance on Friday night at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Still, it wasn’t enough for the young team to find its way into the win column in the OHL standings.
Though the Colts ultimately fell 5-2, the improved effort showed that while there is still room to grow in the young team’s game, progress is being made.
“Yeah, the effort was much better,” said Colts head coach Dylan Smoskowitz. “I liked the week of practice, and there was some better stuff in tonight’s game. There’s still a lot of stuff we got to clean up.”
This past week, we had four full days of practice, which in this league you don’t usually get, and we’re going to show some positives of the stuff that we worked on in practice,” added the coach about some video they planned to show players ahead of Saturday night’s home game against the Oshawa Generals. “Look how much better we were today than we were last game. But there’s still room to grow, obviously.”
It wasn’t the result they wanted, but there’s plenty of positives to build on from this effort.
Colts forward Sebastian Mogull echoed that sentiment regarding the team's growth.
“We’re a young team, but everyone is pulling in the same direction,” said Colts forward Sebastian Mogull, who notched his first OHL goal in the loss. “There’s room to grow, no question, but we’re building that chemistry and learning what it takes to win at this level every night.”
Unlike last week’s matchup, where Barrie let things snowball during a difficult second period, the Colts stayed resilient on Friday. They found themselves trailing 2-0 early in the first period following goals by Sudbury’s Vladimir Provorov at 6:25 and first-round pick Kash Kwajah at 14:29. However, Barrie killed off a pair of key Sudbury power plays late in the frame to hold the deficit right there.
That defensive stand set the stage for a strong push in the second period. Mogull put Barrie on the board with a power-play goal at 4:55, and just over four minutes later, Jonah McCormick slid in a perfect feed in front from Eamon Edgar a little more than five minutes later to knot the game 2-2. Edgar, who is expected to help drive Barrie’s offence this season, set up both tallies.
“He’s a shooter,” Smoskowitz said of Mogull, who had a strong pre-season with four goals and six points in five games. “The coaching staff and (Mogull) have had many conversations about him just being that shooter and having the confidence to pull the trigger more often than not. And it was good to see him shoot one today.
“It was a good screen by Carter Lowe in front. Putting him out on the power play gave us a lot of momentum tonight.”
The tie score was short-lived, as Patrick Ula reclaimed the lead for Sudbury just under four minutes later at 12:46.
Barrie received a major opportunity to get back on even ground at 15:26 of the second period when Sudbury’s Finn Kearns was handed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for a late hit on William Schneid. Schneid landed hard on the ice, needed help to get off, and did not return to the game.
“Their doctor looked at him,” Smoskowitz said of Schneid’s condition. “Obviously, when you get the wobbly legs going off the ice, it’s not a good sign. So, we’ll get him back to Barrie, and we’ll get him reassessed, and probably a game-time decision for (Saturday).”
The Colts were unable to capitalize on the extended man-advantage, however, and the Wolves held their 3-2 edge into the second intermission.
Just 55 seconds into the third period, Jean-Cristoph Lemieux hammered a shot past goaltender Matvei Nikonovich to extend Sudbury’s advantage to 4-2. Barrie got another power-play chance later in the period but could not convert, finishing 1-for-4 on the night while holding Sudbury 0-for-4.
“The power play was good. It had a lot of looks, and it was either a good save or (we) missed a good opportunity,” Smoskowitz said. “We’d love to have that first one back to start the third period. It was just a missed assignment there. They got busy puck watching, which is something that we got to continue to work on, obviously, but if you put the games back-to-back, I’ll take this game over the last one 100 per cent of the time.”
Barrie pushed hard late to trim the lead back to a single goal and give themselves a chance.
“You have to keep pushing, cause the games are not over until it’s over,” said Mogull. “You have to go hard every shift, every second until the (clock) hits zero.”
Kwajah iced the game for Sudbury with an empty-net goal — his second of the night — with 41 seconds remaining to seal the 5-2 final.
Despite the loss, Nikonovich delivered a solid performance in his OHL debut after returning earlier in the week from Pittsburgh Penguins training camp, making 33 saves.
“Yeah, for sure, he made some big stops,” Smoskowitz said. “He kept us in the game for sure. Our goalie coach got to work with him for a couple of days this week... He’s an NHL draft pick. He’s a good player. He’s a really energetic kid, and we’re happy that he got his first game under his belt.”
At the other end, Wolves netminder Paolo Frasca made 29 saves to earn his second consecutive victory over Barrie, improving to 3-0 on the season as Sudbury remained perfect at 3-0.
Addressing the defensive miscues from his young blue line that led to open men in front, Smoskowitz preached patience.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Smoskowitz explained. “Kashawn Aitcheson, when he was a 16-year-old, he made some mistakes that, you know, we looked at each other in the coach’s office. We didn’t think this guy could play in the league, and now he’s, obviously, (last year’s OHL) Defenceman of the Year... So these guys are making the same mistakes that he did, and they’ll get better, just like he did.”
ICE CHIPS
Defenceman Marc Ruggere and winger Ben Lombardi made their OHL debuts on this night. Both received the rookie treatment and went for a lap around the ice before being joined by their teammates.
Offence has been hard to come by early for Barrie, which has just three goals in three games.
First-round pick Lucas Matheson recorded his first OHL point when he drew an assist on Mogull’s second-period goal.
UP NEXT
Now 0-3 on the season, the Colts won't have to wait long to get back on the ice. They host the Generals on Saturday night at Sadlon Arena.
Meanwhile, Sudbury hosts its fellow Central Division rival Brampton Steelheads on Sunday afternoon.
