Jan. 23/25 vs Brampton: Highlights & Recap
The Steelheads made their final scheduled appearance in Barrie on Saturday night where they squared off with the Colts for the fifth time so far in 2024-25. The season series was split at two games apiece heading into this one, with both squads entering pivotal stages of their season. For Brampton, they continue to jockey for a position amongst the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, despite rostering one of the league’s most potent offences. Conversely, Barrie was in first tied with Oshawa and just one point up on Kingston heading into Thursday’s game, where they were looking to extend their win streak and shore up their place atop the Conference.
Some physicality broke out at centre ice before the puck could even be dropped, foreshadowing the kind of outing this would become. Both teams played with a bit of an edge in the early minutes of the frame, resulting in a Kashawn Aitcheson roughing penalty that sent Barrie’s conference-best penalty kill unit to work. The Colts killed the penalty and promptly resumed applying pressure, manufacturing multiple odd-man rushes that were staved off by Brampton goaltender Jack Ivankovic. Opposite Ivankovic, 200 feet from away, Sam Hillebrandt was also being bombarded with pucks throughout the first but managed to keep the Steelheads off the board. Ultimately, big hits were present but goals were not, and this scrappy affair headed into the intermission scoreless.
It didn’t get any easier for Hillebrandt to begin the second, as Brampton hemmed the Colts in their own end for what seemed like an eternity. The ice eventually tilted the other way and Barrie created their fair share of chances in the Steelhead’s zone, but were still unable to get on the board. The game then saw a run of high-paced, back-and-forth action where both teams generated dangerous opportunities that would all prove futile against the red-hot netminders. The seemingly unlimited action at either end of the ice was reflected in the 51 total shots through 40 minutes of play, remarkably, the game would remain scoreless to begin the final period of play.
At 3:11 elapsed in the third, Barrie finally solved Ivankovic, scoring their first goal on their 29th shot to take a 1-0 lead. Hillebrandt continued to shine through the middle minutes of the period, but his luck would eventually run out when Brampton tied the game at one with under five minutes remaining. The Steelheads wasted no time breaking their newfound tie, scoring again just 57 seconds later to take a 2-1 lead. In a flash, Barrie was now staring down a one-goal deficit in the game’s dying minutes. The Colts pulled the goalie and hemmed Brampton in for the final two minutes of the game, they prevailed, scoring with just 1.7 seconds left on the clock, sending the game to overtime tied 2-2. Overtime was brief, as it took Kashawn Aitcheson just 15 seconds to end it, beating Ivankovic on a breakaway. The Colts would come away with the win on a 3-2 final.
The Colts and Steelheads might have found the weirdest way to reach a 3-2 conclusion in a hockey game, leaving all of the scoring to the third period and four of the five total goals being scored in five minutes to close out the game. These two are slated to meet one final time this regular season, on March 14th in Brampton.