On a night where a steady parade to the penalty box kept them pinned down in Oshawa, the Barrie Colts “found a way” late in the game to get it to overtime and salvage a crucial point in a tight race atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Emil Hemming drew the Colts even on a power-play goal with 45 seconds remaining, but Luke Torrance would rip home the winner with 43 seconds left in the extra frame to snap the Colts’ six-game win streak and give the host Generals a 3-2 victory, Friday night, at the Tribute Communities Centre.
In a game where they lost Dalyn Wakely early to a match slew-footing major and then spent a big deal of the rest of it on their heels killing penalties, the Colts nearly completed a late rally to pull off a big win in a game between two of the conference heavyweights.
With Barrie (30-14-2-1) on a five-minute power play, Hemming rifled a point shot over the right shoulder of Oshawa goalie Jacob Oster to get it to overtime.
With time still left on the man advantage, Kashawn Aitcheson would nearly end it on a one-timer in front of the net, but with the teams back to even Torrance would race down the middle of the ice and fire one past the right pad of Ben Hrebik to give Oshawa (28-15-3-1) its first win over Barrie this season in four tries.
“They didn’t quit. They battled,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson of his team’s ability to wrestle a point away in a game where they had just 12 shots through the first two periods and were outshot 41-29. “It’s tough when you take that many penalties and credit to our defence, our goaltending, and our penalty kill, they did a hell of a job.
“We just didn’t get enough of the game at five-on-five and be able to impose ourselves. We lose Wakely early in the game. We probably didn’t deserve a point, so we’ll take it and move on, and try to finish this weekend with five points.”
It was the second time in a week that the Colts had tied a game in the final minute. In a 3-2 overtime win at home last Thursday over the Brampton Steelheads, Carter Lowe tied it with just 1.7 seconds remaining before Aitcheson won it 15 seconds into overtime.
“That just goes to show the character of the players on this team,” said Aitcheson. “Everyone is a leader on this team. There’s no quit in us, we just don’t give up. We never think we’re out of a game until the last buzzer.
“That’s just character and, obviously, the coaching here.”
Aitcheson nearly pulled off another one in overtime, but Oster responded with a highlight-reel stop.
“I think he just got a quick arm out and made a pretty good save on me,” said the Barrie defenceman, who now has 15 goals on the season and four goals and eight points over his last four games.
It was another big goal by Hemming, who now has 12 on the season, with six of them coming in the last seven games.
“It was a bomb,” Williamson said of the equalizer by the Dallas Stars prospect. “It was a big goal, and we needed that. With the five-minute penalty and those type of things, it set us up for overtime and it was a four-on-three for almost a full two minutes.
“We had our chances. He’s been playing really well for us.”
With the point, the Colts now hold a three-point lead atop the conference standings on both the Brantford Bulldogs and Generals.
That the Colts were able to salvage something from this one, was thanks in large part to the play of Hrebik and their penalty kill which held a high-powered Generals’ power play to a single goal on seven chances.
“He was phenomenal,” Williamson said of Hrebik. “He gave us a chance to climb back into it and a chance to win. It was a hell of an effort by him.”
Paired with veteran Sam Hillebrandt, the duo has arguably been the OHL’s top goaltending duo this season.
“He’s a hell of a goaltender,” Aitcheson said of Hrebik who is quickly moving up the NHL Central Scouting draft rankings for goaltenders. “He is absolutely making his case. We have two very strong goalies and it’s so fun to see these two battle.
“Obviously, it’s a friendly competition. Each night they go in and we’re so confident with them in the net.”
Luca D’Amato put the Generals on top just 1:57 into the contest and less than four minutes later were given a five-minute power play when Wakely was sent off the ice.
The overager will receive an automatic two-game suspension. With the match penalty coming before the midway mark of the game, Friday’s contest counts as one game.
Aitcheson would tie it up 41 seconds into the third period on a power-play goal, but the Generals would move back ahead 2-1 on a power-play marker by Lauri Sinivuori.
“You can’t say much when you take penalties like we did, but we found a way to get a point and almost win the game so it’s a sign of a good hockey team,” said Williamson.
With Barrie dressing seven defencemen, they were down to three lines for most of this one after Wakely was sent to the dressing room.
“We had guys lugging a lot of ice time,” said Williamson, whose club hosts the Niagara IceDogs on Saturday night. “It doesn’t bode well for (Saturday), but hopefully they’ll recoup as best they can, and we come out and play a good team game.”
The IceDogs, who are playing their first game of the weekend and are well rested, sit just five points behind the Colts atop the Central Division standings with a game in hand.
“We’re just going to play hard and play like we did tonight,” said Aitcheson. “We’re obviously hungry for another two points after a tough loss. We’re going to get in a good morning skate, be ready for the game, and get on them right away.”
Game time Saturday night at Sadlon Arena is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: The Colts are paying special tribute Saturday to the team’s captains over their 30-year history. Bryan Little, Erik Reitz, Stefan Della Rovere, and Jeremy Swanson are among several others who are expected to be in attendance. . . Evan Passmore (illness) returned to the lineup after missing a game. Michael Derbidge is expected to be back in the lineup on Saturday. . . The Colts wrapped up their regular season schedule against the Generals taking seven points in the four games. . . Barrie finished 2-for-4 on the power play. . . Riley Patterson had an assist to extend his scoring streak (1G, 6A) to four games. . . Barrie held the high-scoring NHL prospect line of Calum Ritchie, Beckett Sennecke, and Colby Barlow scoreless.
