COLTS TOP THE TROOPS 4-3 IN A SHOOT-OUT
The Barrie Colts skated to a 4-3 shoot-out victory Thursday night against the first-place Brampton Battalion.
Mathias Niederberger made 24 stops and denied all three Battalion efforts in the shoot-out and carried the Colts to the win while playing with just 15 skaters.
Colin Behenna was in on all three Barrie goals as the Colts came back from a 2-0 first period deficit.
Sam Carrick set up the Battalion’s first goal at 6:05 of the opening frame and then potted his 15th of the season to make it 2-0 Brampton.
Zach Hall made his return to the lineup and helped set up the Colts first goal on the power play as he got the puck to Behenna who went point to point to Steven Beyers who one-timed it past Matej Machovsky to cut the lead in half.
The Colts evened the score at two early in the second period as Behenna found Alex Lepkowski who notched his fourth of the season.
With just over a minute left in the middle frame the Colts would take their first lead of the night as Daniel Erlich and Derek Hartwick combined to set up Behenna who tallied his third point of the night.
Carrick would tie the game while on a 5-3 advantage early in the third period, which would send this game to overtime and eventually to a shoot-out.
Beyers would score the only goal of the shoot-out and was named first star for his efforts.
12th round draft pick Mitchell Klie was called up and made his Colts debut, Barrie will host the Erie Otters on Saturday night for their annual New Year’s Eve game.
