The Barrie Colts used a hot start to bury the North Bay Battalion 5-2 in game one of their Eastern Conference semi-final series at the Barrie Molson Centre on Thursday night.
First-star Josh Carrick and second-star Andrew Mangiapane bolstered Barrie's attack with two goals and an assist each, while Kevin Labanc had three helpers in the convincing win.
The Colts sprinted out of the gate, scoring three first-period goals in less than five minutes and fortified that lead with their fourth straight goal early in the second period.
Steve Harland and Kyle Wood helped the Troops win the third period though. In a late offensive push, Harland won a doorstep battle and pounced on a Mackenzie Blackwood rebound to narrow the gap ever so slightly, while Wood teed up his trademark one-timer on the power play to cut the lead in half with less than five minutes to play.
But Blackwood got the last laugh, stopping 32 North Bay shots for third-star honours to Jake Smith's 25 at the other end of the ice.
“I thought we didn’t have our best game, so we just have to come out harder next game,” Harland said afterwards. “I think maybe we were still coming off the high of that game seven."
Smith stayed square to his shooters all night and stopped almost everything he could see clearly.
But Barrie’s highly-touted fire power were on point from the very start.
The Battalion’s top line stormed out with a flood of pressure on the very first shift, but the Colts quickly answered with their own quality chances.
Eventually, the Colts’ fresh step around the flat-footed Battalion forced the Troops’ Justin Brazeau to take the costly first penalty of the game.
After staying strong throughout the opening series, the Battalion penalty kill was exposed on their first chance against the Colt’s power play. With the puck hemmed in the North Bay zone, Rasmus Andersson slid a cross-ice pass to Mangiapane at the right faceoff dot, who put his full body weight into a heavy wrist shot past a squared-up Smith.
“I think we came out pretty good, but when they got that first power play goal it kind of went down hill from there a little bit,” said Harland. “In the third period, we brought it on a little bit, but it just didn’t end up in our favour.”
The Battalion then committed an uncharacteristic neutral zone turnover, allowing the Colts’ top line to walk in three-on-two and show off some tic-tac-toe passing that Mangiapane finished off with a slick forehand-backhand move in close.
They didn’t ease up either, applying relentless pressure that paid off on Carrick’s game-winning point shot through three Battalion defenders and a blinded Smith.
Carrick then did the exact same thing early in the second.
The Colts won a clean offensive zone faceoff and Carrick was given free rein to walk the blue line and fire a floater through the heavy traffic of three Battalion defenders.
The Battalion body language looked down and defeated until the third period, when the Troops had a noticeable lift, winning battles along the boards and races to the puck.
Harland turned one of those loose-puck battles into the Battalion’s first goal of the game, beating out the Barrie defenceman in a doorstep scramble. Blackwood struggled with the rebound and panicked into a sprawl, leaving Harland an empty cage to backhand the Troops’ opening goal in.
Just as it looked like the Colts were cruising to the game one win, they opened the door for the North Bay power play, who scored for their seventh consecutive game on Wood’s top corner one-time blast from the far left point to cut the lead in half in the late stages.
With one minute left on the clock though, Colts forward Justin Scott escaped the neutral zone uncontested and buried on an empty Battalion net to officially send the Troops home empty-handed.
“I hope that we showed them that we can definitely compete,” said Harland. “They had our number for a bit there, but I think that we showed them we can come on hard, especially in the last 10 minutes or so where we scored a couple goals and almost came back.”
The Colts also managed to shut down the Troops' top line, limiting Mike Amadio and Mathew Santos to a combined eight shots and minus-two performances, respectively.
“Those guys are a good team - they have a lot of skilled guys,” Harland added. “We just have to shut those guys down and need our secondary scoring to come in clutch.”
In the end, the Troops out-shot the Colts 34-30 but fell in the faceoff dot, losing 40-of-73 draws on the night. On the power play, meanwhile, North Bay went one-for-three while the Colts needed just two opportunities to convert.
Having both come off taxing game seven wins in the opening round just two days ago, the teams will now enjoy an extended three-day break before game two back at the Barrie Molson Centre next Monday.
