Tonight the Barrie Colts (7-2-0-1) host the Sarnia Sting (11-1-0-0) for the final time this regular season. Their first meeting this year happened earlier this month when Sarnia beat Barrie 4-1 at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena. Leo Lazarev got the start in goal and Zach Magwood earned the only goal for the Ponies. Barrie will need to utilize the power play better tonight having gone 0 for 8 in the first game.
The Sting fly into Barrie tonight the hottest team in the OHL having won their last 10 games. Their most recent win came last night over the Sudbury Wolves in a 5-2 victory in Sudbury. Wolves were up 2-0 early in the 2nd period but Sarnia would 5 straight to extend their win streak to 10 games. Rookies Brendan Guy and Jamieson Rees both scored their first career OHL goals. The Sting were out-shot 43-28 but goaltender Justin Fazio would have a huge night making 41 saves in his 8th win of the season. Special teams were a strength for the Sting having killed off 5 of 6 penalties, while scoring on 2 of 3 power play opportunities.
Barrie gallops into BMC tonight after having a week off. The have won their last 3 straight and is coming off a 5-3 win over North Bay last Saturday in Barrie. This game was a special teams battle with Barrie going 2 for 11 on the penalty kill and 1 for 8 with the man advantage. The Colts trailed 3-1 headed into the 3rd period but would score 4 straight to get the win. Kirill Nizhnikov scored his 2nd of the year, with Jason Willms scoring his 4th and Zach Magwood would get his 6th and 7th on the year. Leo Lazarev got the start for Barrie and made 24 saves.
Barrie is 5-0-0-1 at home while Sarnia is undefeated on the road with a 5-0-0-0 record.
Lazarev has been off for the past week but with the Colts playing back to back, they may start Christian Propp get the start tonight to keep Leo fresh for tomorrows game vs Oshawa. No official word on who will start yet.
Colts will have to play without their leading scorer Andrei Svechnikov who is out with a hand injury that happened late in last Saturdays game vs Erie. If hand surgery is required, he could be out for 6 to 8 weeks. A huge blow for the Ponies. The team will at least get a boost on the blue-line when captain Justin Murray returns to the line-up after serving the final game of his suspension last week.
Barrie will NEED to limit their penalties tonight. Sarnia is the only team with more penalties this season but they are a stronger team on special teams. Barrie will no doubt take some time to adjust lines with the loss of Svechnikov, but they have enough skill that if they can stay out of the box, they could snap this Sarnia 10 game win streak.
Another note, our own Ryan Noble will be on with our friends at BIG 101 during intermission to quickly talk about the game live from BMC. Be sure to tune in if you are able. You can tune in here.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30.
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