Game Preview: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds @ Barrie Colts. First VS, Last. #OHL

Tonight the OHL’s first placed Sault Ste. MarieGreyhounds are in town to face your last place Barrie Colts. The meeting will be the final of two this regular season.

Barrie VS. Soo this season.

Barrie comes into tonight’s game riding a 2 game win streak which for the Colts is a bit of a hot streak this year. The first and only other meeting between these teams took place on December, 2^nd, 2016 when the Colts lost 4-3 in OT to the Hounds at the Essar Centre.

The first period was all Greyhounds. They out-shot the Colts 15-8 in the period and got a pair of goals. Zachary Senyshyn scored his first of the night at the 8:35 mark and then just under 10 minutes later added his second on the night.

Barrie came out strong in the second period. 4:12 in, Jason Willms scored a goal with assists going to Jaden Peca and Aidan Brown. About 4 minutes later on the power play the Colts would tie the game on Justin Murray’s second goal of the year with Tyler Tucker and AnthonyStefano adding helpers. The score was tied 2-2 after two periods.

Zachary Senyshyn was not done with the Colts scoring his 3^rd goal of the night just before the halfway mark of the 3^rd period. Barrie really came out hard after hoping to tie the game. They managed to out-shoot the Soo 14-11 in the frame and at the 16:44 mark, Zachary Magwood would score to tie things up 3-3 and forced overtime. After regulation the Hounds

outshot the Ponies 35-34.

OT would not last long when Zachary Senyshyn scored his 4^th goal of the night to give the Hounds the 4-3 win over the Colts. The goal was his 13^th on the season.

The Hounds outshot the Ponies 37-35. Barrie managed to hold the Soo scoreless on 4 power play chances and went 1 for 5 on the man advantage.

Murray ended the game with a goal and an assist, Stefano got 2 assists, Magwood and Willms got a goal each while Brown, Tucker and Peca got assists.

David Ovsjannikov got the start and made 33 saves on 37 shots faced.

Hounds beat Rangers.

Soo got back in the win category last night with a win over the Kitchener Rangers. The win has them with a 7-2-1-0 record over the last 10 games and allowed them to climb over the London Knights for top spot in the overall standings.

The Hounds came out slow in the 1^st but Zachary Senyshyn scored first on the night. The goal was his 21^st on the season. The Rangers would respond shortly after with a power play marker and towards the end of the frame with another goal on the man advantage. The period ended with the Rags leading 2-1.

2^nd period showed a stronger effort for the Soo and at 14:22 Zachary Senyshyn scored his second of the night to tie the game 2-2. Hounds out-shot the Rags 12-9 in the frame.

In the 3^rd period it was mostly Greyhounds but the Rags found a way to capitalize on their limited chances in the period. 7:18 saw Zachary Senyshyn complete the hat-trick and was his 23^rd goal on the year. Remember that time he didn’t make team Canada? The goal put the Hounds up 3-2.

Frank Hora scored less than a minute later for the Rangers to tie the game 3-3. Over the next 3 minutes there would be 3 more goals. Hora scored his second on the night but Boris Katchouk scored his 18^th on the season to give the Soo the 5-4 lead.

Hounds took a late call and Adam Macherin would make them pay scoring the teams 3^rd PP goal of the night to force overtime in the last minute of regulation.

OT didn’t last long. Boris Katchouk scored the game winner just 11 seconds in. The goal was his second on the night.

The 3^rd was tough for Soo goalie Joseph Raaymakers who allowed 3 goals on 4 shots.

Special teams was the biggest struggle for the Hounds allowing 3 goals on 5 penalty kills and not finding a way to score on 4 power play opportunities. Despite those struggles, they still managed to walk,er, skate away with the 6-5 win.

Barrie fished out win from Trout.

Barrie might have stolen their 3-2 overtime win from Mississauga last night. Mississauga outshot Barrie 38 to 24.

Regulation was basically a fight between Anthony Stefano and Spencer Watson. Stefano scored first, Watson got a couple and Anthony Stefano would score with less than 2 minutes in regulation to force OT. The goal was his 13^th on the season and Roy Radke got a helper on the goal.

OT lasted 2:39 when Giordano Finoro scored his 7^th on the year to give the Colts the 3-2 win and extending their winning streak to 2 games. Yes, for Barrie that is a streak to be proud of this year.

 

Both team struggled on special teams going 0 for 3.

Anthony Stefano was named the 1^st star, Watson 2^nd and Giordano Finoro was 3^rd but this doesn’t reflect the games true first star. Christian Propp was outstanding in goal for the Colts. He made 36 saves on 38 shots faced and many of them were huge saves at big times. If it was not for Propp, this game would have been much uglier.

Final Thoughts.

Soo are hot right now, but the Colts are coming off 2 big OT wins. One over a top team in the Conference and the other over another hot team in the east. Trout came into last night riding a 3 game win streak and have been the best team in the East over the last 10 games, and the Colts still managed to find a way to get a pair of wins. Barrie can use this momentum to beat the Hounds tonight, they will just need to play disciplined. If they can stay out of the box and find a way to capitalize on power play chances, with the help from some good goaltending, there is no reason Barrie can’t extend their winning streak to 3 games.  Oh, and maybe don’t let Zachary Senyshyn score 4 goals on them again. That could also help.

With this being the 3rd game in 3 nights and being a game against the West, I would look for Ruan Badenhorst to start, however Propp was outstanding last night and I would roll with him for the second game in two nights. I would start Propp. 

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 tonight at BMC.