Just minutes after a game-tying goal by Cole Beaudoin with eight seconds remaining Sunday afternoon in Oshawa had been disallowed, Barrie Colts general manager and head coach Marty Williamson was struggling to find the proper words to explain the controversial call.
The Colts appeared to tie the game 5-5 when Beaudoin, off a goal-mouth scramble, swatted the puck under General's goaltender Jacob Oster before referee Jason Faist had whistled down the play.
Replays with audio appeared to confirm it was a goal, but after a lengthy 20-minute review it was ruled no goal, and suddenly the underdog Colts went from an opportunity of polishing off a sweep of the opening two games at the Tribute Communities Centre in the OHL best-of-seven first-round series to a 5-4 loss and things all even heading to Game 3 back in Barrie on Tuesday night.
“I don’t understand,” said Williamson on the ruling on the goal. “He’s pointing at the net. He sees the puck go in the net. I don’t know what to say.”
After opening the series Friday night in Oshawa with a 4-2 victory, the eighth-place Colts came back with another solid effort in Game 2 and appeared to be an overtime goal away from having the top regular season team in the Eastern Conference on the ropes.
“We knew it was going to be a different game than the first game. However it went, we just had to keep battling,” said Williamson,” whose club fought back from a 4-2 late second-period deficit to tie it early in the third. “I thought the guys answered the bell there. I thought they battled right to the very end.
“It’s tough when you play such a hard game like that and have a call like that go against you.”
The Colts took some time in the dressing room after the game to digest what had just happened.
“It’s a tough call, but we talked it over for a while,” said forward Riley Patterson, who scored twice and was on the ice when Barrie appeared to tie it in the dying seconds. “You got to trust that they made the call that they felt was the right call at the time and that’s what happened.”
Williamson knows his club has to put this one aside, move forward and focus on what’s important now, which is Game 3 on Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m. at Sadlon Arena.
“It’s going to hurt for an hour or so and then we got to look forward,” said the Barrie bench boss. “We got to get ready for another battle and improve on some things and get ready for Tuesday’s game and home ice. Get last line change where we can dictate the game a little more.
“Our effort can’t change. These guys have to battle for every inch and they’re doing it, so we need to have the same kind of effort for our fans.”
After Patterson, parked in front, tipped a Beaudoin shot past Oster on the power-play goal just 1:25 into the game, Barrie would have to fight back on three occasions in this one.
Goals by Beckett Sennecke and Dylan Roobroeck less than three minutes apart midway through the first made it 2-1, before Beau Jelsma took a pass from Zach Wigle in the slot and fired it past Oster’s right pad to even it up just 23 seconds later.
The Colts failed to take advantage of a slew of Oshawa penalties before the home team capitalizing twice on its man advantages late in the second period.
Matthew Buckley’s blast on a one-timer with the Generals on a two-man advantage at 15:27 put them back on top and then 47 seconds later, Buckley again on a similar play, made it 4-2.
Oshawa looked to have all the momentum, but Bode Stewart cut into the lead a little more than a minute later when he was tripped up going to the net, but still managed to backhand it past Oster from his belly.
“It was huge. It was just a momentum shift for us,” Patterson said of Stewart’s goal. “We were down two goals, and it was a big pushback to comeback, and he made a great play.
“He’s stepped up for us in the last little bit here and he’s been great. To score that one and be down one we still had confidence and motivation that we were still in the game.”
Barrie drew even 4-4 at 6:24 of the third when Beaudoin set up Patterson in front.
“I thought it was a great goal by Bode,” said Williamson. “It really helped our mental state. This team has never quit, they never really show that thing on the bench where ‘Yeah, we’re disappointed,’ but Bode gets us a goal and we get one to start the third.
“We give up one but fight right to the end. I guess you just got to believe that the hockey Gods will balance this out because they took one away from us, so hopefully they give us one.”
Luke Torrance would put Oshawa up 5-4 when he banged home a rebound in front past Barrie goalie Sam Hillebrandt with 8:16 remaining.
The Colts pressed and had a couple of good chances to tie things up once again, before it appeared they had in the dying seconds of the game.
“We’ve shown we never quit,” said Patterson. “We work hard all the time. No matter what the score is or how the game is going, we’re going to push, we’re going to battle. It’s just our identity.”
Barrie returns to a familiar place tomorrow night where they have had good success and with home ice advantage in the series in its back pocket.
"I think our guys should be very confident,” said Williamson. “It’s going to be a long series and every little thing matters. We took a little bit of a careless penalty, and we knew that they were going to give us one after they had called penalties on them. Then we get an unlucky break of jacking the puck up over the glass. That’s why every little thing matters.
“These are great lessons for this young hockey team, and it’s matter of getting refocused, get your energy high, get a good little skate, good little video (Monday) and some good rest (Sunday) and Monday and come play a heck of a game on Tuesday.”
After splitting the season series 2-2 and splitting the opening two games of the series in Oshawa, the Colts feel good coming home.
“We know that we can play against them,” said Patterson. “We’re going to match up well and play them hard every night. We’re going into it (Game 3) with a positive mindset. We got two games in our home barn now.
“It’ll be another good two games and a battle to the end of the series.”
ICE CHIPS: Game 4 goes Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Barrie. . . Beaudoin and Aitcheson each had two assists. . . Oshawa outshot Barrie, 37-28. . . The Colts are the heavy underdogs and the fact that not many gave them a chance in this series isn’t lost on them. “I think our guys saw all these predictions of four straight that Oshawa was going to win over us, and we put that one to bed real quick in Game 1. We played a real good game here. They’re a first-place team, but we’re not giving them any inches on the ice. We’re fighting for every inch and that’s why I’m proud of this team so far.”. . . The Colts went 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Generals finished 2-for-3.
banner image: Josh Kim/Barrie Colts
