Dec. 5/24 vs Flint: Game Recap & Highlights
The final meeting this season between the Firebirds and Colts took place at Sadlon Arena in Barrie on Thursday night. These squads find themselves in similar positions, both with good crops of returning players and both having made trades with an emphasis on immediate success. Despite employing similar approaches, these two squads appear to be on opposite trajectories, with the Colts finding lots of early success and the Firebirds struggling out of the gate. Both teams entered this matchup in good shape as of late, Barrie had won 4 of their last 5 while Flint was coming off of back-to-back wins including an 8-2 dismantling of the Niagara Ice Dogs in their most recent contest.
Flint applied pressure in the opening minutes of the game and appeared poised to take an early lead until two costly penalties seemingly derailed their momentum. Although they took 6 minutes worth of penalties in the first 5 minutes of the game the Firebirds continued to gain traction offensively, producing two short-handed odd-man rushes. Flint went on to open the scoring 15 minutes into the opening frame, and then it was Colts captain Beau Jelsma tying the game at 1 on a beautiful wrist shot that he elevated above the right shoulder of Flint Goaltender Nathan Day. The pair of goals traded late in the period was the extent of the scoring and the game would head into the second in a 1-1 tie.
A chippy start to the middle frame resulted in another Barrie power play that was subsequently stifled by the Flint penalty-killing unit that had been dynamic to begin the game. Bode Stewart scored his long-awaited first goal of the season on a cross-crease feed from Kashawn Aitcheson at 7:30 elapsed in the second, breaking the tie and giving Barrie a 2-1 lead. Another roughing penalty committed by the Firebirds put the Colts back on the powerplay, including this most recent man-advantage Barrie had now accumulated 6 powerplays before the game could reach the midway mark. On that same powerplay, Colts forward Tristan Bertucci scored against his former team to extend the Colts’ lead to 2. Barrie kept their foot on the gas with yet another second period goal, this time it was Dalyn Wakely getting his 100th career OHL goal and making it 4-1 Colts. Barrie would lead in goals (4-1) and shots (26-24) heading into the final period of play.
Flint managed to get on the board early in the third, cutting Barrie’s lead to 2 goals and giving themselves a legitimate chance at mounting a comeback. In a period less compelling than the previous two, an interesting stoppage of play occurred just over 5 minutes in when the referees blew the play dead upon realizing there were two pucks on the ice. After exchanging confused looks and ridding the field of play of the secondary rubber circle, the refs resumed play. A late-period interference penalty called on Barrie’s Gabriel Eliasson quickly snowballed into a 5-on-3 for Flint. The Colts penalty killers staved off the 2 man-advantage before Dalyn Wakely would seal the game with an empty netter for his 2nd on the night.
In the end, the Colts came away with a 5-2 victory, a similar result to their only other game against Flint back on November 21st when they beat the Firebirds on the road 3-2. With this win, Barrie takes the season sweep over Flint, winning both of their appearances against the Firebirds this season. Barring a meeting in the OHL finals, the Firebirds and Colts won’t face off again until the 2025-26 season. Another one in the win column for the Colts means they now own an impressive 18-8-0-0 record this season, meanwhile, this loss drops the struggling Firebirds to 11-14-0-1. The Colts are now set to hit the road beginning Friday night in Kingston.
