Any coach of a young team knows there will be nights like this.
For Marty Williamson, the hope is his Barrie Colts learn from games like their 6-2 loss to the Knights, Friday night, in London.
A game where the Colts (14-19-1-0) hung in early with one of the OHL’s top teams, only to have a turnover cost them and open the floodgates.
“That’s the story of our life right now,” said Williamson, after the Knights scored three times in the second period to blow open a scoreless game. “We kind of hang in there for a while and then our consistency isn’t good enough and good teams take advantage of it.”
Williamson can only hope his squad can take something from tough nights like this and build on it.
“That’s the bottom line,” he said. “As much as I get frustrated, I’m competitive. I want to win. I understand for these young guys it’s hard. It takes a while to build that consistency and understanding urgency and understanding danger and those kinds of things.
“That’s the process we’re going through. It’s the cycle of this league and there’s very few teams that don’t go through it, and we’re in it right now.”
London (25-11-0-1), which has now won eight straight, struck just 1:23 into the middle frame when Landon Sim forced Olivier Savard to turn the puck over at the Knights blueline and raced all the way down the ice. West stopped Sim, but Sam O’Reilly, following up on the play, shovelled home the rebound.
Jared Wooley and Oliver Bonk added to the lead in the second and the Knights were off to the races to build a commanding 6-0 lead on third period markers by Easton Cowan, Sam Dickinson, and Evan Van Gorp.
“I think our detail started to lack a bit there in the second period and they jumped on our mistakes,” said Barrie defenceman Grayson Tiller. “They’re a really good team and if you’re going to make mistakes, they’re going to capitalize on them.”
Beau Jelsma scored a pair less than two minutes apart late in the third, but the game was pretty much decided by then.
“They didn’t do us any favours and all their Team Canada guys played,” Williamson said of the Knights, who had Bonk and Cowan back from the world championships in Sweden. “That’s a good hockey team over there.
“Again, we just got to get consistency to our game and more battle to our game. You got to play 60 minutes. You can’t play 20 or 10 in this league. Anybody can beat you.”
With back-to-back losses to Sarnia and London, the Colts wrap up a tough three-in-three weekend against Western Conference foes when they host the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at Sadlon Arena on Saturday night.
The Greyhounds sit second overall in the OHL standings and lead the West Division having won seven of their last 10 games.
“They’re a really good team and we got to (regroup) and watch some video in the morning,” Tiller said of the Hounds. “We got to let this one go and focus on (Saturday) night.”
The home date with the Hounds is Barrie’s last game ahead of Tuesday’s overage trade deadline and the overall trade deadline on Wednesday at noon.
It could be the last game in a Barrie jersey for veterans like Connor Punnett and Jacob Frasca should they moved ahead of the deadline.
“He’s meant a lot to me,” Tiller said of Punnett, the team’s captain. “Coming into this league and playing beside him, I couldn’t have asked for anybody else better to play with. He’s a great leader.
“He’s just focused on playing hockey right now and letting things play out how they play out.”
Game time Saturday is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Holland Landing native Michael Derbidge made his Colts debut, finishing with a plus/minus of plus 1 and four penalty minutes. . . West made his seventh straight start for Barrie. Barrie was outshot 35-23, including 13-3 in the second period. . . Punnett, who has four goals and 31 points in 33 games, has eight assists in his last seven games. . . Cowan had a goal and two assists and Bonk a goal and assist in their first game back from worlds.
Banner image via Josh Kim/Barrie Colts
