The Barrie Colts got their five-game road trip rolling in fine fashion Thursday night in Saginaw only to have the wheels fall off.
Barrie jumped out to an early 2-0 start a little more than five minutes into the contest before the Spirit reeled off six straight goals en route to a 7-4 win at the Dow Event Center.
Cole Beaudoin and Anthony Romani, both with their first of two goals on the night, got the Colts off to a strong start, but the early momentum would shift with a little more than six minutes remaining in the opening period when Evan Passmore was sent off for roughing.
Zayne Parekh scored on the ensuing power play, recording his 100th point of the season, and Kristian Epperson would add a pair before the end of the period to get Saginaw rolling.
“I thought it was one of our best first periods even though we ended up losing (the period) 3-2,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “We could have scored five. We had some good looks on our power play, we were really sharp. We had a breakaway. We had chances to score five goals, and we didn’t do it.
“We know they’re the second-highest-scoring team in the league. We took a stupid penalty with (just under) seven minutes to go in the first and the last six minutes of the first weren’t very good and got us on our heels and then a couple of bad ones in the second. It’s just a tough game when you get behind like that.”
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The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Colts (37-19-2-2), who remain three points behind the Brantford Bulldogs atop the Eastern Conference standings with a game in hand and eight games remaining.
Barrie, which heads to Sault Ste. Marie on Friday night to take on the Greyhounds, also missed the opportunity to move within four points of clinching its ninth Central Division title in franchise history.
“There are no easy nights in this league,” said Williamson. “The Soo is fighting for the playoffs. It’s going to be a tough game up there. They’re 100 per cent healthy; they’re working hard. It’s difficult to win on the road. We’ve got to find a way to get some points.
“Then we go into Sudbury (Sunday), and we know how tough that is. It’s one game at a time, that’s all I’m worried about right now. Let’s go play a good game and try not to deflate ourselves with dumb penalties or big mistakes when we’re up 2-0 and should have been leading after that first period.”
Trailing 3-2 heading into the second, the Colts would have some chances to draw even early, including a pair on a power play, but the missed opportunities would be as close as they would come.
Nic Sima and Kaeden Johnston would score 27 seconds apart and then Johnston would add another to help the Spirit take control.
Beaudoin would score again late in the second and Romani would get Barrie to within 6-4 with 3:45 remaining, but Igor Chernyshov would beat Sam Hillebrandt just six seconds later to ice the win for Saginaw.
“These are the games where you really miss (defenceman Tristan Bertucci). You really notice it,” said Williamson. “They’re a pretty offensive team when they put pressure on the forecheck, and we didn’t make enough plays below the goal line.
“The defence just didn’t make enough plays. Between (Gabriel) Eliasson and Passmore, they need to make passes, and we didn’t, and that compounded our problems.”
Hillebrandt, who was making his third-straight start, stopped 21 of 27 shots before being replaced by Ben Hrebik to start the third period.
“He wasn’t his normal self,” said Williamson of Hillebrandt. “I know he’d like to have that (Sima goal) back for sure. He usually gives us a save or two on those other ones. It was a tough night for him. Our goalies have won us a lot of games and we needed to be better in front of him too.”
Romani’s two goals continued his hot stretch. The Vancouver Canucks prospect now has scored in each of his last four games and has five goals over that stretch.
He has 13 goals in 21 games as a Colt and is only beginning to hit his stride after being acquired from North Bay at the OHL trade deadline back in January.
“He sure is,” said Williamson. “He’s an elite shooter, and whether it’s the power play or an odd-man rush, I feel pretty confident when the puck gets in his hands. It’s going to be a good scoring opportunity.”
If the Colts are going to go a distance in the playoffs, they’ll need Romani to continue filling the net.
“I wish we had beared down on a few more in that first period,” added Williamson. “We had a two-on-one that we didn’t get anything out of, a breakaway that we didn’t get much out of and the power play made some good plays.
“We need him (Romani) scoring. That’s one of the reasons we got him. We don’t seem to be the highest-scoring team in the league, but he’s a big help.”
Game time tonight against the Hounds at GFL Memorial Gardens is 7:07 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Barrie captain Beau Jelsma played in his 251st game tying him with Justin Scott for fifth in franchise history. . . Dalyn Wakely will return to the lineup Friday after completing his five-game suspension. “We’ll rearrange our lines a little bit,” said Williamson. “He’s an impact player. He was just voted into the quarter-century club as one of North Bay’s best players. We need him back. He’s well rested and then we’ll go from there.”. . . Parekh (32-68-100) is only the sixth defenceman in OHL history to hit the century mark in points in a season and is the first since Ryan Ellis recorded 101 points in 2010-11 with the Windsor Spitfires. . . Hrebik stopped 14 of 15 shots in the third. Kaleb Papineau stopped 28 of 32 shots for the Spirit. . . Kashawn Aitcheson and Brad Gardiner, who was celebrating his 20th birthday, added two assists each for Barrie.
