Colts can’t hang on in loss to the Attack
The Barrie Colts playing their third game in four nights would make a valiant effort in front of their home fans but eventually it was the Owen Sound Attack coming back late from a two goal deficit to defeat the Colts 5-3.
Coming off a tough loss at the hands of the Attack the previous night the two teams would go at it again for the annual Labour Day Classic to finish out a trio of exhibition games over the long weekend.
What turned out to be a stormy wild night outside translated on to the ice at the Molson Centre Monday evening as both teams would come out flying right from the opening shift.
The physical play would translate into plenty of action but also a bit of penalty trouble as the Colts would get called a number of times to find themselves short handed.
The boys would play a superb penalty kill throughout the first 20 minutes of play and it would eventually result in the Colts finding the back of the net first.
Hemming the Attack in their own end while down a man, Giordano Finoro would steal the puck behind the Owen Sound goal and feed Kyle Heitzner alone out front making no mistake for his first of the preseason giving the Colts the early lead.
The Colts would need to continue their solid penalty kill, as the big hits would keep coming resulting in a five-minute major call.
With just under two minutes remaining in the major penalty Owen Sound’s Ethan Szypula would find himself dancing through a number of Colts defenders to break in on starting goalie David Ovsjannikov but the overage netminder would shut the door and make all 11 saves in the first period to keep the boys up 1-0.
The rapid pace would continue into the second period with both teams trading chances.
Ovsjannikov would be tested early in the opening minutes numerous times beginning to steal the show in the Barrie net, as every chance would be denied early on.
Midway through the second the Colts would continue their push at the other end of the ice.
A beautiful passing play would get started as Andrei Svechnikov would head man the puck up to Lucas Chiodo skating down the left side he would return the favour finding Svechnikov skating hard into the Attack’s zone and fire a snapshot passed the glove hand of the Owen Sound goalie to put the Colts up by two.
With just under five minutes remaining in the second the Colts would give way to another Owen Sound powerplay, this time making the Colts pay. Szypula would send a bank hand pass through a crowd of players landing on the stick of Matthew Struthers who fired it into the open cage to get the Bears on the board.
Moments later with a face off coming in the Owen Sound end; once again it would be Finoro setting up a Barrie goal. Winning the draw cleanly back to Joey Keane he one timed a blast to the back of the net for his first goal of the preseason restoring the two goal lead for the Colts and take the 3-1 lead into the intermission.
For much of the third period both teams would limit the other from many chances, but eventually the Attack would take over the momentum.
The penalties would continue to prove costly for the Colts. With just under eight minutes remaining in the third period, a shot would come from the left circle, Ovsjannikov would make the initial save but Sean Durzi would bury the rebound to make it a one-goal game.
The Attack weren’t done yet; moments later it would be Szypula once again skating into the Barrie zone feeding Chase Campbell snapping one by the Barrie netminder to knot things up at 3.
With just over three minutes remaining Owen Sound would take the lead. After a number of players had gone hard to the net crashing into the Barrie goal, that left the goaltender without a stick. Nick Pryce quickly snapped a hard shot to the bottom right corner of the net beating a helpess Ovsjannikov eventually standing up as the game winner.
The Colts would pull the goalie with just over a minute to play looking for the equalizer but once again Pryce would skate the puck down into the Barrie goal for the insurance marker.
The boys will now take a 10 day break in their preseason game schedule before returning to action against the Niagara Icedogs September 14th.
Barrie opens their 2017-18 regular season schedule with the home opener on Thursday September 21st when they play host to the Ottawa 67’s. Puck drop for both games will be 7:30pm.
Tickets for upcoming home games can be purchased in person at the Colts Store located in the Barrie Molson Centre, by calling 1-866-9-GET-TIX (1-866-943-8849), or online at ticketbreak.com/BarrieColts
