Attack drop Colts 4-3
Article courtesy of www.thebarrieexaminer.com
The Barrie Colts played with their usual attacking ferocity.
But an inability to convert and a weak middle frame did them in.
The Colts gave up three goals in the second and couldn’t recover, falling 4-3 to the Owen Sound Attack on Thursday night.
“We had a good first period with them, and kind of gave up a bit in the second and didn’t get pucks deep,” said Colts forward Matthew Kreis. “We weren’t moving our feet and they took advantage of that.
“In the third, we battled back, but it was too late.”
The Colts dominated the first period for large stretches at a time, but ended the frame tied with Owen Sound.
Barrie had their share of early opportunities, putting eight shots on Attack starter Jack Flinn less than four minutes in.
The best scoring chance for the Colts might have been a long flip in by Barrie’s fourth line that eluded Flinn initially, but was stopped on the goal line by the stick of the tall goaltender.
Following that, the top two lines each had golden opportunities to take the lead, but a couple of bad bounces kept Barrie off of the scoreboard.
“It was a little bit frustrating to see that we were peppering (Flinn) with shots, but he was holding his own,” said Kreis, who appeared in his 100th career game tonight. “We just have to keep getting shots to the net.”
Finally, the first unit got the Colts on the board.
Kevin Labanc pressured Damir Sharipzyanov behind the Owen Sound net and forced the Russian into a turnover.
From there, Labanc sent a pass to Brendan Lemieux in front of the net, and the Winnipeg Jets prospect wisely waited for Justin Scott to come in on the right side and blast a one-timer past Flinn to make it 1-0 Barrie.
“Getting that goal early is huge, but still, everyone’s accountable for doing their job,” Scott said. “We just have to keep playing the same way.”
Colts goalie Mackenzie Blackwood didn’t get much work until the second half of the first period, but he looked solid when called upon, following Port McNicoll’s Jacob Busch across the crease in the butterfly to turn him aside.
