Colts trample Knights 10-3 to win 7th in a row
In their second meeting this season, the Colts welcomed the London Knights to the Barrie Molson Centre. The last meeting was back in October, where the Colts won 4-3. Both the Colts and Knights have been very successful as of late, as London had not lost in regulation in there last 10 while Barrie has gone 9-1-0-0, before tonight’s game.
After giving up an early goal, the Colts came back firing and beat the Knight’s 10-3. This was the first time this season that the Colts hit double digits, and the win is their seventh win in a row.
Tonight saw 8 different Colt player’s score, while 10 players registered a point. Four players also had a multi-point game. Joseph Blandisi recorded a hat trick in tonight’s game and added an assist, while Kevin Labanc scored a goal and added four assists. Andrew Mangiapane had a goal and three assists, and Rasmus Andersson had a goal and two assists. Justin Scott, Roy Radke, Garrett Hooey and Brendan Lemieux also scored tonight, while Cordell James and Givanni Smith added assists.
The Knights opened up the scoring early on, putting one home only 57 seconds into the game. Zach Grzelewski made a pass to Chris Martenet in the high slot. Martenet beat Blackwood for his first goal of the season giving the Knights a quick 1-0 lead.
After going down early, the Colts would come back with vengeance and score three goals in 40 seconds, including a short-handed tally. At 7:18, on the penalty kill, Labanc would score his second short-handed goal of the season after Mangiapane made a beautiful drop pass in the slot. Labanc ripped home a shot to extend his current point streak to 23 games. 26 seconds later, Scott would redirect a saucer pass from James to put home his 16th goal of the season, giving the Colts a 2-1 lead. But only 14 seconds later, Radke would put the Colts up 3-1 when he ripped a shot past Tyler Parsons. Givani Smith had the assist on Radke’s goal.
The third Colts goal would turn out to be the end of the night for Parsons, as Michael Giugovaz replaced him in goal.
The rest of the period would be all Colts, as just under five minutes after Radke’s goal, Andersson put home his 8th goal of the season when the puck came to the point after a scrum in front of the net. Then, with nearly 3 minutes left in the first period, Mangiapane deflected home Andersson’s shot, while Labanc registered an assist to extend to Colts lead to 5-1 to end the first period.
The Colts outshot the Knights 12-11 in the first period, and denied the Knights on their three power play opportunities.
The second period saw the Colts maintain control and extend their lead. On the power play past the halfway point in the game, Blandisi put home his 25th goal of the season on the doorstep off a nice passing play from Mangiapane and Labanc.
Less than a minute and a half later, Hooey walked down the right side and ripped a shot past Giugovaz for his 11th goal of the season. Hooey has extended his current point streak to five games, as he has registered 3 goals and 2 assists.
Lemieux would wrap up the scoring in the second period when he put home the second power play goal for the Colts. Lemieux redirected a point shot from Andersson that was going wide. Blandisi also had an assist on the goal.
The Colts scored two power play goals in the second period, while outshooting the Knights 13-6 and taking an 8-1 lead into the third period.
The Knights would add two more goals in the third period, scoring just over two minutes into the period and with under 2 minutes left in the game. Aaron Berisha scored a power play goal, and John Warren scored an even strength goal for the Knights, while Matt Rupert, Josh Sterk and Cliff Pu added the assists.
Blandisi would add two more goals in the third period for the Colts, giving him the hat trick, and allowing the Colts to hit double digits in goals for the first time this season. Blandisi’s first goal of the third period was his league leading 7th short-handed tally, as he received a pass from Labanc and outmuscled the Knight’s defender before going five-hole for his 26th. His 27th goal would be a power play goal as he one-timed a shot off a pass from Labanc. Mangiapane added his 3rd assist on Blandisi’s third goal.
Labanc extended his point streak tonight to 23 games with a 5-point night, and now has 48 points over that time. Blandisi has recorded 10 points in three games, with 6 goals and 4 assists.
Despite putting themselves short handed six times during the game, the Colts only gave up one goal on the penalty kill, but scored two short-handed goals. The Colts went 3 for 6 on the power play tonight. Over three periods, the Colts outshot the Knight’s 37-26.
After playing and winning five games in the last seven days, the Colts are back on the ice Thursday, January 8th against the Niagara Ice Dogs at the Barrie Molson Centre. The game will mark the first meeting this season between the Central Division rivals. Click here for tickets.
