Inside the CHL
The Barrie Colts have accomplished one goal already and are looking forward to working towards the next one.
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The Colts locked up the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the OHL’s top team in the regular season with a 4-2 win over the Belleville Bulls on Sunday. Next up, the Colts have their sights set on winning the Robertson Cup as OHL champions and representing the league at the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Brandon, MB in May.
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The Colts have a CHL best 55-9-0-2 record and have won nine of their past 10 games heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
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“It’s certainly a tremendous hockey club we’ve got,” said two-time Team Canada defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, who joined the Colts after the World Junior Championships ended in January. “We can certainly do some damage this year in the league and it’s exciting to be a part of.
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“We’ve had some ups and downs so far but we just want to play some good hockey going into the playoffs.”
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Since Pietrangelo arrived in Barrie, the Colts have mostly just enjoyed the ups. They have lost just four of 25 games since the trade deadline at the beginning of January and scored a pair of wins over the Windsor Spitfires in a battle of the OHL’s top two teams.
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“I think everyone here knows we have a chance to win it and I think it will be exciting here going into the playoffs,” Pietrangelo said. “We’re a team that can really make a run for it and (Colts’ coach) Marty (Williamson) and (Owner/GM) Howie (Campbell) obviously did a good job putting the team together. We just have to go out there and perform.”
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A key part of the Colts’ success this year has come from the overage tandem of Luke Pither and Bryan Cameron, who both came over from Belleville before the season started. Cameron was the first CHL player to hit the 50-goal plateau this season and Pither is enjoying a career year with 35 goals and 91 points in 65 games.
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“After playing in Belleville for four years, it was different switching to a new team,” Cameron said. “We had a lot of success in Belleville and we just tried to take that to Barrie. We’ve done pretty well so far – Barrie’s is looking really good this year. Hopefully we can have a good run.”
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Cameron helped the Bulls advance to the Memorial Cup two years ago in Kitchener and Pither joined the team for their run to the Eastern Conference finals last year. That playoff experience should pay dividends for the Colts in the coming weeks.
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“It’s definitely the same feeling I had when I was with Belleville,” Cameron said. “We’re a strong team and we’ve just got to take this into the playoffs and everyone just keep playing there game. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”
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While the Colts have already locked up the OHL’s regular season championship and the Saint John Sea Dogs have clinched their first Quebec Major Junior Hockey League title, the Western Hockey League regular season championship is still up for grabs.
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The Calgary Hitmen have a three point lead over the Brandon Wheat Kings for first place in the WHL standings with two games to go.
Photo by Aaron Bell/OHL Images