A strong start by their opponents left the Soo Greyhounds with a disappointing finish to a three-game homestand.
The Barrie Colts killed off a pair of early penalties and scored a pair of goals 46 seconds apart en route to a 4-2 Ontario Hockey League win over the Greyhounds Sunday afternoon at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The tough start to the game was costly for a Greyhound team that battled back in the contest.
“In the first period, there’s no doubt they were more intense,” said Greyhounds Coach John Dean. “There’s no doubt that in the first period they were more aggressive and more hungry to make plays.”
“I don’t mind our response in the second period,” Dean said. “Now you’re in a dog fight in the third period that could go either way and our slow start ends up costing us.”
For the Colts, the win came thanks to a 60-minute effort that the team hasn’t seen often recently.
“We’ve been spinning our wheels a little bit lately,” said Barrie Coach Dale Hawerchuk. “We’ve had good starts but haven’t been able to capitalize on that.
“We knew we had to shut down their power play and we got some confidence early by shutting that down and had a big kill at the end (of the game),” Hawerchuk also said.
Lucas Chiodo and Jason Willms scored in the opening period and a power play goal from Matej Pekar in the third period put the visitors ahead to stay.
“You have to give (the Colts) credit,” Dean said. “They’re really hard on the puck. They love to play with the puck and they’re a better team than their record indicates.”
“They did a good job of defending our rush,” Dean also said.
Short shifts allowed the Colts to make life difficult for the Greyhounds.
“We said (before the game) we wanted to be first on pucks and if we weren’t, we wanted to make sure we were getting puck or man,” Hawerchuk said. “We stayed aggressive that way. Guys kept their shifts (short) for the most part and they were fresh. You can’t do that unless you’re fresh.”
Keeghan Howdeshell and Robert Calisti scored for the Greyhounds, who will take a 19-8-4-1 record into a two-game road trip next weekend.
Matthew Villalta made 21 saves.
Joey Keane had the other goal for the Colts.
Keane and Pekar finished the day with a goal and an assist each while defenceman Tyler Tucker assisted on a pair of goals.
Colts netminder Kai Edmonds stopped 29 shots.
“Our work ethic was probably the best it’s been for 60 minutes all season,” Hawerchuk said. “That was one of our best games all year.”
The Colts improve to 15-14-1-0.
Earlier in the day, the Colts announced the trade of team captain Justin Murray to the Saginaw Spirit.
The overage blueliner was dealt to the Saginaw Spirit for forward Ryan Stepien and a fifth round draft pick (originally Barrie’s) in the 2020 draft.
The Colts then flipped Stepien to the Kitchener Rangers for defenceman Jack York.
The Greyhounds will wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule with road games next weekend against the Mississauga Steelheads on Friday night and the Hamilton Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.
In other action around the OHL on Sunday, in Hamilton, Arthur Kaliyev had two goals and two assists as the Hamilton Bulldogs beat the North Bay Battalion 5-1. Matthew Strome chipped in with two goals and an assist for the Bulldogs.
In Kitchener, Brett Neumann scored three times as the Kingston Frontenacs beat the Kitchener Rangers 4-1. Ryan Cranford and Matt Hotchkiss assisted on two goals each for Kingston.
In Mississauga, Cole Coskey had two goals and an assist as the Saginaw Spirit beat the Mississauga Steelheads 5-3. Justin Murray and Cole Perfetti had two assists each for the Spirit.
In Ottawa, Tye Felhaber had two goals and an assist as the Ottawa 67’s beat the Peterborough Petes 4-2. Sasha Chmelevski added a goal and a assist for Ottawa.