The North Bay Battalion played a solid 53 minutes, but the last seven minutes was forgettable for Battalion fans as the Barrie Colts erased a 3-1 lead with four unanswered goals including both the game-winner and insurance marker shorthanded in a 5-3 Colts win at the Barrie Molson Centre Saturday night.
Jason Wilms got the game-winner on an odd-man shorthanded rush as he converted a perfect pass from Cade Landry who beat a helpless Julian Sime.
Zachary Magwood led the Colts charge with two goals and one assist including an empty net shorthanded tally with 47 seconds left to secure the Colts win.
Things started on a positive note for the Troops as Luke Moncada ripped home a loose puck in the slot past Barrie starter Leo Lazarev which gave the Troops a 1-0 lead 1:01 into the contest.
“Not many times you jump onto the ice and the puck comes right to my stick and all I had to do was finish it,” described Moncada about his opening goal on the OHL Tonight on YourTV.
The Battalion increased the lead on some nice work down low on the power play as Andy Baker rolled out from behind the net and put a high shot past Lazarev which made it 2-0 Battalion in what was a penalty-filled opening session.
The Colts jumped out early in the second period as Lucas Chiodo converted on an early odd-man rush as he beat Battalion starter Julian Sime 11 seconds in.
The Battalion regained their two-goal lead late on a power play, Cam Dineen walked into the zone and wired a shot past Lazarev for his 6th goal of the season as the Troops caught the Colts on a line change.
It was a penalty-filled middle frame with 11 calls made by the officiating team.
Arguably your turning point occurred around the 13-minute mark of the third. The Troops nearly add more insurance as Justin Brazeau stripped the puck shorthanded and went in all alone on Lazarev who closed up the five-hole on the nifty deke by the lanky forward.
As fate would have it, just moments later on the same power play, Kirill Nishnikov put a shot through traffic that may have gone off the stick of Cam Dineen.
Then, less than a minute later on a sloppy clearing play, Zach Magwood cashed in on a juicy Dime rebound to even the game at 3-3.
The backbreaker was next at Cade Landry came out of the box and led an odd-man rush as Adam Thilander was caught pinching in the Barrie end. Landry fed a perfect pass just out of the reach of Cam Dineen and onto Jason Wilms stick for the game-winning shorthanded tally at 18:13.
Magwood got his second of the game also shorthanded, as he won the race to a clearing play and slipped a puck into the empty cage for another shorthanded tally with 47 seconds left which made it 5-3.
Julian Sime finished the game with 19 stops while Lazarev had 24 stops for the win. Magwood led the offence with two goals and one assist.
For the Battalion, they drop their fifth straight (3-3-2) after a 3-0 start to the season. They will have little time to regroup as they play Sunday afternoon back at home as they host Ben Garagan and the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Veterans Brett McKenzie and Daniil Vertiy were not in the lineup as Alex Robert and Kurtis Evans got into the lineup.
Puck drop is set for 2 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
