The Barrie Colts faced a stern test against the Saginaw Spirit on Thursday night, but a second-period lapse cost them a final passing grade.
In a close, spirited battle played with a ton of emotion, Saginaw grabbed control of the contest with four goals in the second period and then held off a late Barrie comeback in the third to hang on for a 7-6 win at Sadlon Arena.
Rodwin Dionicio, who finished with two goals and five points, tied the contest 2-2 early in the second before Riley Patterson gave Barrie (21-26-3-0) its third lead with his second power-play goal of the night less than three minutes later.
Josh Bloom would tie the game again less than a minute later before Owen Beck, with his first of two, and Zayne Parekh scored just 78 seconds apart late in the same frame to help power the West Division leaders (38-13-0-1) to their sixth-straight victory and 13th in their last 14 games.
“I’m a little disappointed with the second period and the four goals we gave up,” said Colts head coach Marty Williamson, whose club fell 4-3 in overtime in Saginaw earlier this month. “We made some mistakes. More of individual stuff, just not reads. That’s where we got to get a little mentally stronger. We know that’s a good team and we kind of talked about it before that you can’t have a five- or eight-minute lapse because they can put a few numbers on the board quickly.
“I challenged them to come out and have a good third period, and we won the period. They played hard, so I’m proud of the guys that way.”
Roenick Jodoin cut the lead to one a little more than a minute into the third, but late goals by Michael Misa and Beck gave the Spirit a cushy 7-4 lead.
The emotional contest, which featured plenty of big hits, pushing and shoving, a fight, and game-long heated battles between former Colt Hunter Haight and Kashawn Aitcheson and former Colt Braden Hache and just about every Barrie player, was far from over though.
After his power-play goal gave the Spirit a three-goal cushion with just 3:31 remaining, Beck turned to the Barrie bench and started blowing kisses.
The Colts would reply by giving the Western Conference powerhouse a big scare when Jack Brauti and Cole Beaudoin cut the lead to one with just 24 seconds remaining.
Shorthanded, the Spirit would just hang on.
“Yeah,” Barrie’s Thomas Stewart answered with a big grin when asked if Beck’s kisses fired up he and his teammates. “That’s not something I like. I think it’s good for the game because then it shows that we’re not robots out there on the ice, but that definitely lit a fire under us.”
Tai York, who finished with three points, also scored for the Colts, who stood toe-to-toe with a Spirit team that has loaded up big throughout the season as it gets set to host the Canadian Hockey League championship this spring.
Saginaw dominated much of the second, outshooting Barrie 13-4 as well as outscoring them. Still, a young Colts team, as it's done for most of the season, refused to go quietly.
“That’s something I love about this team,” said Stewart, who came over from Oshawa at the trade deadline. “We don’t quit.”
Williamson hopes his young team can learn from this. They were right there with one of the OHL’s top teams and could have won.
“We said these are tests,” said the Colts coach who was without Grayson Tiller on the blueline after the defenceman was hurt last weekend. “We’re going to play a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the playoffs, and it’s going to be this kind of team, and we got to get mentally strong.
“I thought it hurt us a lot without Tiller tonight. He’s got a walking boot and that’s another hurdle we got to get through here the next few weeks to play with a sparse defence core.”
The Colts return to action Saturday night when they take on an Ottawa 67’s team that has been playing well of late, having earned 15 out of possible 20 points over its last 10 games.
Williamson is hoping he gets the same emotion and determination his team showed tonight.
“And we need it,” he said. “Ottawa is a team that has kind of had our number. We haven’t played great against them. They have got a deep lineup and that sometimes gives us problems. We get last change, and so we got to get focused on them now.
“We’ll go in and have a good practice (Friday). We won’t go too hard but get a good little skate in and shift everything away from this and focus on Ottawa.”
Game time on Saturday is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Barrie’s power play had several chances throughout the night and finished 2-for-8. “We’re trusting our coaches,” said Stewart. “We’re listening to what they’re saying and really taking the information. . . We’re not panicking under pressure. We’re understanding where we’re supposed to be and we’re really taking in the information they’re giving us and doing our best to capitalize.” . . . Beaudoin also had a pair of assists to go along with his team-leading 24th goal of the season to improve his scoring streak to 13 games (8-12-20). . . Patterson’s two goals (20-27-47) moved him into a tie with Brantford’s Jake O’Brien for the rookie scoring lead. . . Tiller is in a walking boot and was replaced in the lineup tonight by rookie Noah Smith. . . Sam Hillebrandt made 29 saves in goal for Barrie, while Nolan Lalonde made 24 stops for Saginaw. . . Saginaw blueliners Jorian Donovan, Parekh and Dionicio have combined for a league-high 56 goals and 167 points. “We wanted to finish our checks,” said Williamson. “We watched a couple of their games and we just didn’t want their defence coming up and down the ice as well as they do. You can’t stop them sometimes, but Dionicio, Parekh, Donovan, these guys are high-end puck carriers and I thought, for the most part, our forecheckers did a pretty good job with it.
banner image: Sam Hossack, Barrie Colts
