Colts earn 30th win of season in shootout win
The Barrie Colts welcomed the Kingston Frontenacs to the Barrie Molson Centre for the first time this season after two regular season meetings in Kingston. The Colts won both previous games this season by one goal.
Coming in to tonight, the Colts led the Central Division with 60 points, while the Frontenac’s sit fourth in the Eastern Division with 45 points.
Despite never holding a lead, the Colts battled back to tie the game at 2-2 to end regulation. Overtime solved nothing, and it would take 6 rounds in the shootout before the Colts beat the Frontenac’s 3-2.
Justin Scott had a goal and an assist, along with the shootout winner tonight. Garrett Hooey also had a goal and an assist, while Ben Harpur and Chadd Bauman each tallied an assist in tonight’s game. Kevin Labanc would also score in the shootout.
The Frontenac’s opened the scoring early in the game when Schutt got the zone and broke down the right side. Schutt cut towards the net and beat Blackwood over his left shoulder to give the Frontenac’s a 1-0 lead just 1:05 into the game. Corey Pawley and Chad Duchesne had assists on the goal.
The Colts nearly tied it up when Blandisi and Labanc were going 2 on 1 into the Frontenac’s zone. Blandisi made a saucer pass over the defenseman’s stick to Labanc’s stick, but Labanc couldn’t put it past Lucas Peressini.
After being outshot early in the period, shots were 10-9 in favour of the Colts at the end of 20 minutes.
The second period remained 1-0 until Hooey put his 13th goal of the season past Peressini. Nearly 3 minutes left in the second period, Chadd Bauman took a shot from the point, Scott grabbed the rebound and Hooey tipped it home.
The Frontenac’s opened up the third period on a power play and only needed 26 seconds to capitalize. Juho Lammikko would tap in his 11th goal of the season when Evan McEneny’s shot trickled past Blackwood. Roland McKeown also assisted on the Frontenac’s go-ahead goal.
With less than 8 minutes left to play, the Colts nearly tied the game back up when Blandisi once again fed Labanc in the slot. This time though, Labanc was all tied up and couldn’t get a stick on the puck. Then, on the power play with 5 minutes to go in the game, Harpur got a shot through that hit the post. But the Colts wouldn’t stop, and with less than 10 seconds left on the power play, Harpur got another shot through traffic, and Scott was able to bury the rebound. Hooey assisted on the Colts 2-2 tying goal with just over 3 minutes left in the game. The goal would bring Scott to a team leading +28.
To cap off a wild end of regulation, Harpur would once again get a point shot through and Andrew Mangiapane would jump on the rebound. However, the goal would be given further review and after a lengthy review it would be called a no-goal due to Mangiapane kicking the puck in the net. The Colts outshot the Frontenac’s 12 to 6 in the third period.
Overtime would solve nothing, and the first whistle of the period would come with 3.58 seconds left.
In the 6th round of the shootout, Scott would beat Peressini and Blackwood would shut the door on Jared Steege to solidify the win for the Colts.
Labanc and Scott were the two goal scorers in the shootout, while Mangiapane, Blandisi, Lemieux and Hooey all had chances.
The Colts would capitalize on 1 of their 7 power plays on the night, while the Frontenac’s went 1 for 3 on their power play chances. Blackwood would stop 22 of 24 shots faced in the game, while the Colts would put up 35 shots.
Tomorrow night the Colts are back at it when they travel to the Hershey Centre to face divisional opponent the Mississauga Steelheads. Game time is 7:30pm.
