First place in the Eastern Conference may be well in sight for the Barrie Colts, but you won’t find them scoreboard watching as the OHL regular season gets set to kick into the stretch drive.
Instead, Barrie’s focus has remained squarely on its own game, and that’s working out just fine these days.
The OHL’s hottest team continued its torrid pace Saturday night with a 4-2 win over the Saginaw Spirit at the Dow Event Center, completing a weekend sweep south of the border in Michigan and moving Barrie to within three points of the Brantford Bulldogs and Ottawa 67’s atop the conference standings.
“That’s been our thing. Win the day. Keep winning the day,” said Colts’ head coach Dylan Smoskowitz, whose club is 13-1-1-0 since the Christmas break. “If you think you’re going to win the whole Eastern side and get home ice throughout, that would be really nice, but there are a bunch of good teams on this side. When you start scoreboard watching and wondering what other teams are doing, all that does is take away the focus from your own group.
“So, we’re going to keep the focus here, on the 24 guys we got in Barrie. Make sure they’re as prepared as possible to go out there and do the job that is required of them. It’s been working for us so far, and we’re not going to change that much.”
Cole Beaudoin, Emil Hemming, with his ninth goal in nine games, Brad Gardiner, and Ben Wilmott scored for the Colts (32-11-2-4), who sit atop the Central Division by 18 points, and are just nine points away from clinching a playoff berth.
Fresh off an overtime win in Flint the night before, a dominant effort helped Barrie build a 4-1 lead before a late push by Saginaw (17-24-3-4) made things interesting.
Egor Barabanov scored with 3:20 remaining to cut the lead in half, but it was as close as they would get, thanks to a pair of highlight-reel blocker saves by Colts’ goaltender Ben Hrebik in the third.
With the Colts up 3-1, Dimian Zhilkin, who opened the scoring just 1:50 into the contest, slid a cross-slot pass to Barabanov. The American winger was looking at an open cage, but Hrebik threw himself across the crease and got his blocker on the rising shot that was heading for the top of the net.
Then, with only a little more than two minutes remaining, the Spirit came close to making it a one-goal game when Barabanov fed Zhilkin in front, and his one-timer heading for the short side was stopped by a diving Hrebik, who once again got the blocker out.
“They put on quite the push at the end there,” said Smoskowitz. “They pulled the goalie and really ate us up six-on-five. Ben was waiting all game long for some action, and he definitely got his fair share there at the end and answered the bell.
“Without Ben, who knows? This game might still be going on in overtime right now. He was fantastic those last four minutes.”
The start wasn’t an ideal one for Barrie after giving up the early marker and then having to kill off three power-play chances to a Saginaw lineup that has its share of offensive weapons.
It was pretty much all Barrie from there until the late push.
Beaudoin, on the power play, and Hemming scored less than three minutes apart in the second for the Colts, who outshot the Spirit 35-14 through the first 40 minutes and 43-23 overall.
“We talked about how they’re a high-flying team, and you can’t take many penalties against them, and what do we do? The first couple of shifts, we took penalties. So, it wasn’t an ideal start for us, but a pretty good response,” said Smoskowitz, whose club gave up just three shots in the middle frame.
“I like the way we started that second period, and we were fortunate enough to bury a couple. I actually thought we should have buried some more. We had some good looks, and their goalie made some big saves. We struggled a little bit with getting guys to the net, but when we did have net pressure and net presence, we were really good.”
As usual, the big guns of Beaudoin and Hemming helped the Colts get going against Russian rookie goaltender Stepan Shurygin.
“The thing with those two guys is they prepare themselves so well,” said Smoskowitz. “When it gets to games, they’re a well-fueled machine. These guys are ready to go, and it’s almost like I can’t give them enough ice time, and they can’t do enough good things out there for us.”
The Colts got some much-needed insurance early in the third.
A Gardiner one-timer from the left side on a cross-ice feed from Joe Salandra made it 3-1 just 1:24 in, before Wilmott’s shot from the high slot past a screened Shurygin, a little more than four minutes later, added to the lead.
“The more you can get, the safer you feel,” Smoskowitz said of the Colts keeping the pedal down in the third. “Our power-play coach (Dennis Martindale) did a good job on that four-on-three, getting the two units ready to go. The first unit didn’t get one, but the second unit goes out on the ice and buries one.”
UP NEXT
Barrie will continue its four-game road swing next Friday night in Brampton, before a home-and-home weekend set against North Bay.
Life on the road has been pretty good for the Colts, who boast a 17-5-0-2 record away from Sadlon Arena.
“This three-in-three, as a staff, we’re going to sit down and map out a plan for the week where we still get enough work in, and enough reps in, but at the same time make sure our guys are rested and will be ready to compete for 60 minutes times three on the weekend with travel involved as well,” said Smoskowitz.
Meanwhile, Saginaw will continue its four-game homestand against the Soo Greyhounds on Wednesday.
ICE CHIPS
Both Jonah McCormick and Luc Gauvreau could return to the lineup next weekend. McCormick has missed three games since taking a hit last week against Brampton. “He’s passing all the necessary physical tests,” said Smoskowitz. “It’s just an upper-body injury, and every day he’s getting better and a little more comfortable.” Gauvreau has been under the weather. “With many hours spent on the bus this weekend in such confined space, we didn’t want him spreading it to anyone else, so we kept him at home,” added the Barrie bench boss.
Beaudoin, who also had an assist, now has 19 goals and 58 points, and sits 11th overall in league scoring despite playing just 36 games.
Nicholas Desiderio has been suspended for a check to the head late in Friday’s win in Flint. The length of the suspension is pending review.
ADD. OHL
Brampton 2 Oshawa 1
London 6 Erie 1
Flint 6 Sarnia 3
Owen Sound 4 Guelph 3
