Blandisi gets 50th goal, Blackwood stops 38 as Barrie beats Peterborough 3-0
Article courtesy of www.thebarrieexaminer.com
The Barrie Colts have a couple of notable advantages over the Peterborough Petes.
Both of them were in full force on Saturday.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 38 saves and Joseph Blandisi became just the second Colt ever to score 50 goals in a season as Barrie defeated the Petes, 3-0.
“I thought we had a bit of a slow start, but we kept putting pucks to the net,” said Colts winger Adrian Carbonara. “I thought we (capped) off a good weekend.”
The Colts were sluggish to begin the first, but finished the period with some history.
Barrie starter Mackenzie Blackwood looked sharp early on, which was good, because he faced a lot of shots off the hop.
In fact, Blackwood had to weather the game’s first 10 attempts on net, as the Colts couldn’t muster a shot on goal until there was 9:30 remaining in the opening period.
“Recently, we haven’t come out with too good of starts and he’s been our rock back there,” Blandisi said. “He’s been back there playing his head off all year.
“As long as he gives us a chance to get our feet under us, we’re going to win most games.”
But the Colts would get the lone goal of the first, as their captain made history.
Ben Harpur kept the puck in at the point and sent a pass to the far side for Kevin Labanc, who waited at the side of the goal until Blandisi came into the slot.
Labanc fed the puck into the middle of the ice and Blandisi blasted home his 50th goal of the season, making him just the second Colt ever to realize that accomplishment.
“I couldn’t even really think about it (in the moment),” Blandisi said. “I had to go congratulate ‘Bancer, because he caused the whole goal and he gift-wrapped that one for me.
“(Scoring 50) was a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year and to achieve that, it’s really important for me.”
With that goal, Blandisi passed Andreas Athanasiou’s total from a year ago to move into second all-time in Colts franchise history for goals in a season, trailing just Bryan Cameron (53).
“He’s definitely a guy on the team that the younger guys look up to,” Carbonara said.
