BAR @ OTT Game 1 in Review

by Alex Quevillon
The Barrie Colts looked to be playing a perfect road game through the first 20 minutes on Friday night, holding Ottawa to shots from the perimeter and taking the crowd out of it. By the end of the second period, a complete 180. While the 67’s put up four goals to Barrie’s one in the middle frame, the home crowd did its part as well. Fans were heckling Barrie goaltender Mathias Niederberger relentlessly while Head Coach Dale Hawerchuk was more pre-occupied complaining about the noise level than the game itself.

This all came after a first-period that, by looking at the scoreboard seemed like an even game, but in reality, Barrie was taking the play to Ottawa. The shots were tied 12-12 after one, the game still deadlocked in a scoreless tie thanks in large part to the stellar goaltending of Petr Mrazek. Without him, Barrie could have put this one away early.

The two teams traded goals to start the second, but that’s when things came unraveled for the visiting Colts. Shane Prince netted a pair of goals, his second coming off a deflection that Niederberger never saw. With the score now 3-1, the fans gave Ottawa a real home ice advantage. While Niederberger was being taunted, Hawerchuk was completely thrown off at the Barrie bench, spending TV timeouts to speak to the refs and complain about the noise level rather than speaking to his players.

Tyler Graovac extended the lead before the end of the second and Remy Giftopoulos rounded out the scoring with 20 seconds left in the third, leading Ottawa to a 5-1 lead. The goals by Graovac and Giftopoulos, as well as the first goal of the game from Tyler Toffoli, were all powerplay markers, a part of Ottawa’s game that struggled for the better part of the season and first round of the playoffs. Mark Scheifele answered for Barrie.

Mrazek, despite his busy first period, only ended up having to make 21 stops to Niederberger’s 34. These two teams play again on Easter Sunday at 2:00 in Ottawa.

For those who are interested in discussing this game or other future Ottawa-Barrie games, ITO’s Anthony Nicholson ( N24Nicholson) will be discussing the games via Twitter, using the hashtag #ITORound2.