Game Preview: Mississauga Steelheads @ Barrie Colts. #OHL

Tonight, the Mississauga Steelheads will be at the Barrie Molson Centre to face the Barrie Colts for the fourth of six meetings this regular season. Mississauga sits in the top of the Central Division while Barrie is at the bottom.

Ponies VS. Trout this season.

The Ponies and Trout have faced each other three times this season already and Mississauga has taken a pair of victories over the Colts. Each victory needed extra periods to decide a winner and the last meeting saw the Trout win 4-3 in overtime.

Colts came out strong in the first period with Ben Hawerchuk scoring a goal on the first shot of the game 42 seconds in. The team would continue to pressure Mississauga but scoring another goal at the 4:02 mark to take the early 2-0 lead.

33 seconds later the Trout would get their first shot and it would be a goal against Ruan Badenhorst to cut into the Colts lead, 2-1. With less than 5 minutes left in the period, Owen Tippett would score to tie the game at 2-2 which is how the period would end. The 1st was Barrie's strongest effort of the game out-shooting Mississauga 10-9. It was downhill from there.

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Barrie would start the 2nd with a few shots on goal but then would go over 10 minutes without generating a single shot on goal. The Steelheads got 12 shots and a goal from Tippett in that time to take the 3-2 lead before Barrie got another puck on net. The 2nd ended with Mississauga leading Barrie 3-2. Trout outshot the Ponies 16-5.

3rd period was better for the Colts. They actually out-shot Mississauga 8-6 and tied the game early in the frame on a Kirill Nizhnikov goal just before the 8 minute mark. That would be it for regulation and the game would need overtime.

Overtime only needed 1:15 to decide a winner. Stefan LeBlanc scored to give the Trout the 4-3 win.

Badenhorst made 29 saves on 33 shots. The team went 1 for 4 on the man advantage and allowed a 1 goal on 5 penalty kills.

Trout drill Battalion.

Mississauga has only 1 OT loss over their last 6 games played. Their last game saw them roll over North Bay 4-0 at home. With the exceptions of the score sheet and the faceoff circle, this was a fairly close game. The Trout outshot the Troops 30-28 in the game.

All the goals were scored early in each period. Daarijarvi scored the game winner before the 3 minute mark with Tippett getting an assist. A couple minutes later he would score his 2nd of the night and 10th on the season with Tippett again getting the assist.

Shaw Boomhower scored his 6th of the season in the 2nd period and Spencer Watson would get his 17th of the year in the 3rd to clinch the 4-0 win. Mississauga went 1 for 2 on the power play and killed off all 4 penalties they took. Michael McLeod might not have scored any points but he was huge in the faceoff circle for the Trout wining 15 of 20 draws. Jacob Ingham got the start for Mississauga and saved all 28 shots faced in his 10th win of the season. The rookie is proving himself to be a valuable piece in this Trout roster.

Colts stung by Sting.

Barrie has only 1 win in their last 10 games played. They are riding a 6 game losing streak. They have not made it easy on some of these teams forcing OT in a few of those losses, but they are still losses.

The last loss came at the hands of the Sarnia Sting this past Saturday night at BMC. Sarnia took a 5-2 win over the Colts.

Colts allowed the first couple goals before Roy Radke would respond at the 11:36 mark to make it a 2-1 game. Sarnia however would score one last goal before the end of the 1st to make it 3-1.

Kyle Heitzner would score in the 2nd to make it 3-2 but the Sting would score again shortly after to reclaim the 2 goal lead. Heitzner goal was his 3rd of the year and Justin Murray got an assist. 2nd ended with the Sting leading 4-2. Barrie had the edge in shots 14-2.

3rd period resembled the 2nd with Barrie outshooting the Sting 14-12 but Sarnia would get the lone goal in the period to clinch the 5-2 win.

Barrie was not able to score a goal on the man advantage with 3 PP chances. It is worth noting the team did a great job on the penalty kill going 6 for 6 on the PK.

Christian Propp was outstanding for the Colts making 39 saves on 44 shots faced. He looked a little off early but really brought his game together as it went on. Almost as if this 3 goalie rotation is doing little for his development and confidence.

Final thoughts.

18 games left in the season for the Colts. It is looking pretty obvious where they will finish this year. Expect the team to continue with the 3 goalie rotation to finish the season. With 13 wins, I wouldn’t expect more than a handful of wins before the end of the season. The teams main goal moving on will to get games in for all the goaltenders and to hopefully get ice time for the rookies, while finding a way to get Nizhnikov going.

As for our prediction for who will start, we forgot our 3 sided coin at home so… I would expect to see Ovsjannikov get the nod tonight.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 at BMC.