Colts Top Guns Lead the Attack Against Wolves 6-3
On a beautiful January evening the Barrie Colts were lead by their leading goal scorers to push them past the Sudbury Wolves 6-3.
It’s been nearly a week since we saw the Barrie Colts in action, and it was a much needed rest for the guys who’ve had a very busy month of January. This weekend saw the boys head to Sudbury before making their way to Sault Ste. Marie to finish off a weekend road trip.
The last time these two teams met, it was in Barrie on January 11th and it wasn’t pretty for Sudbury. A 10-1 Colts victory, you knew the Wolves were going to be ready to play in front of their home crowd.
The first period would go by scoreless with the home team Sudbury getting a couple good scoring chances but couldn’t find the back of the net. Sudbury would outshoot Barrie 12-10 in the opening frame.
In the second period it was Barrie getting their first powerplay of the game. After the first two minutes of a double minor went without any sort of chances, the Colts would strike.
Aaron Luchuk was able to grab the puck beside the Wolves net and whacked away at the puck a couple of times, but Jake McGrath was able to keep it out. On his last chance the Colts leading goal scorer decided to bank it off the back of the Wolves net minder and it just trickled past the line to open the scoring. Andrei Svechnikov and Jason Willms picked up assists on the games opening goal.
Just moments later it was a former Colt getting the scoring started for the Wolves. Kirill Nizhnikov took the between the legs feed from David Levin before snapping it past Leo Lazarev to tie the game at one.
It wouldn’t take long for Barrie to reply. This time it was Willms working his way down low in the Sudbury zone. He would use his body to out muscle the Wolves defender as he bodied his way to the front of the goal before wrapping it around the net and past the skate of McGrath to give Barrie their one goal lead back for the 2-1 score. Jaden Peca and Joey Keane would assist on the go ahead goal.
Barrie wouldn’t allow Sudbury to tie things up this time. The Colts would strike for the two goal lead. It was Svechnikov fresh off a CHL Top Prospects appearance a night before in Guelph, who would snap one top corner to extend Barrie’s lead to 3-1. Joey Keane and the former Wolves forward Dmitry Sokolov would assist on Svechnikov’s 20th goal of the season.
The Wolves hadn’t won a game this year trailing after two period of play and things didn’t get any better just over four minutes into the third.
Barrie was able to keep some pressure on Sudbury in their own zone. The Colts would reward themselves with their fourth goal of the game coming off the stick of Lucas Chiodo. He was able to slide one past McGrath as the puck found his stick at the side of the Sudbury goal. His 15th of the season made it a 4-1 lead.
Midway through the third it was Sudbury wasting no time with the man advantage. Just five seconds into a powerplay the Wolves defenseman Peter Stratis blasted one from the point that was tipped by Blake Murray past a screened Lazarev to cut the Colts lead in half to 4-2.
Just moments later the home team would come right back. After a play that had nothing come from it as it was tied up under a Wolves fallen forward in front of the Barrie goal it would come loose. Sudbury would find the puck and it would end up on the stick of Murray who had a wide-open cage to fire home his second of the game and to cut the lead to one.
The Wolves would pull their goaltender with about a minute remaining and Barrie would find a way to add the insurance. It was Chiodo with his second of the game from Zach Magwood to make it a 5-3 score.
Jaden Peca would add a second empty netter to bring us to the final score of 6-3 over the Wolves.
Barrie is back in action tomorrow night against the OHL’s top team in the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to finish off the weekend.
