A busy stretch after the holiday break finally caught up to the Barrie Colts on Thursday night at Sadlon Arena.
Playing their fourth game in six nights, the Colts looked like a team running on fumes, and the result was a 4-1 loss to the Sudbury Wolves.
After home-and-home wins Saturday and Sunday over the North Bay Battalion and an emotionally charged victory over the Oshawa Generals on New Year’s Eve, a tired Colts team had little jump against the Wolves.
“We didn’t have a lot of emotion or determination to our game,” said Colts’ general manager and head coach Marty Williamson. “We did look like a tired team that has been playing some tired bodies a lot and it’s maybe catching up to us a little bit.”
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The disappointing loss comes after a strong team effort in a 7-4 win over the East Division-leading Generals two nights earlier, The loss to the Wolves is one they can learn from, believes veteran forward Brad Gardiner.
“We go from playing Oshawa and having a great team effort, and everyone firing the whole game, to here where all of us could have given a little bit extra,” said Gardiner. “It’s good to learn from games like that. It’s still early enough in the season, we’re only halfway. It’s better to learn from these games now than later on. We just got to regroup, see if we get some guys back in a week or so.”
After Sudbury’s Kieron Walton opened the scoring on the power play just 4:47 into the first period, Riley Patterson would tie it a little less than 10 minutes later on his third goal in the past two games.
Kocha Delic would put the Wolves on top for good at 16:02 of the opening period when he tipped a Gavin Ewes point shot past Ben Hrebik and then with just 23 seconds remaining Delic took a behind-the-back feed from Alex Pharand and walked into the slot and beat Hrebik to give Sudbury control.
Second periods have been good for Barrie (24-10-1-1) all season, but that wasn’t the case on this night. Sudbury (19-10-5-0) carried play in the second and got some solid saves by goalie Nate Krawchuk when needed and a late marker by Donovan McCoy to put Barrie in a deep hole heading to the third.
“We just didn’t seem to have a lot of gas in our gas tank,” said Williamson, whose club was outshot 15-5 in the second. “We weren’t supporting the puck really well. We just kind of looked in one gear and there were no second and third gears. We were just playing out the clock and I didn’t like the game at all.”
The Colts’ power play has been clicking of late and moved up to eighth in the OHL rankings, but it drew a blank on this night going scoreless on seven chances.
A couple of goals with the man advantage for Barrie and it might have been a completely different hockey game.
“Exactly,” said Gardiner. “We all got to step up and do our things and play our roles, but sometimes bounces go your way and sometimes they don’t. I think we just got to stick with it. It’s a tough one here tonight. Learn from it and regroup and get better as a group and go from there.”
The Wolves penalty kill, which sits fifth overall, certainly deserve some credit for keeping Barrie off the board.
“We had a couple of looks,” Williamson said of the Barrie power play. Kashawn Aitcheson had a couple of looks back door. They put pressure on us, and they make it difficult, but you are going to get your looks.
“A couple of times we had the puck just us and the goalie, one-on-one in front there, and we just couldn’t get it by him. So, tip your hat to them.”
The Wolves were pretty much good all night. From blocked shots to getting sticks in Barrie passing lanes and breaking up plays, the Colts appeared frustrated throughout the night.
“They always get numbers back and they play a pretty sound defensive game,” Williamson said of Sudbury. “I thought they made it difficult, and we just didn’t have enough energy to expose them at certain times we had advantages.”
Despite Canada’s early exit Thursday night from the world junior hockey championship in Ottawa after a 4-3 loss to Czechia in the quarter-finals, Cole Beaudoin and Beau Akey are not expected to be in the lineup on Saturday night when the Colts host the Kingston Frontenacs.
“We got to get to work here a little bit at practice,” said Williamson. “It’ll be a long one, but we need to work on a few things and get back to the kind of game we played against Oshawa.”
The Frontenacs, who sit second behind Oshawa in the East Division standings, dropped a 5-4 decision to Barrie in early December in their only meeting this season.
“It will be a good one,” said Gardiner. “We’re neck to neck with those guys in the standings, so it’ll be a big game. We need everybody to be ready, come out, and play. It should be an exciting one.”
Game time Saturday night is 7:30 p.m.
ICE CHIPS: Wolves forward Nathan Villeneuve, who was given a lengthy suspension along with former teammate Evan Konyen last year for “inappropriate game-related comments” shared on a Wolves group site about Kashawn Aitcheson, was at it with the Barrie defenceman pretty much all night. . . Sudbury was 1-for-4 on the power play and outshot Barrie 41-37. . . Cole Dubowsky, scratched since December 14, returned to the lineup. . . Walton, who sits third in league scoring with 22 goals and 59 points, now has seven goals and 10 points in seven games against Barrie this season. . . The Colts and Wolves will play once more this season in Sudbury on March 9. Barrie has won five of the seven games between the two teams. . . After Saturday, the Colts play three of their next four games on the road.
