Tough OT Loss for Kingston, Colts Take Game One 6-5
April 4, 2018 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Kingston Frontenacs News Release
On Wednesday night the Kingston Frontenacs kicked off their second-round series against the Barrie Colts. In the first round, Kingston disposed of the North Bay Battalion in five games while the Barrie Colts needed six games to eliminate the Mississauga Steelheads. Both teams were led in scoring by a pair of Kingston boys. Gabe Vilardi had 12 points for the Frontenacs including a game winner in the third overtime period of game five. Aaron Luchuk also had 12 points in the opening round series for the Colts. The Frontenacs took 3 of 4 from the Colts in the regular season, but neither team had their full line up in place for any of those games.
Kingston had a great road start and they opened the scoring on the power play after a Justin Murray holding penalty. Linus Nyman found the back of the net after some great puck movement in the offensive zone. The Colts tied the game just minutes later off a face-off win. Jaden Peca settled a bouncing puck and beat Jeremy Helvig to the blocker side. Justin Pringle restored the Kingston lead at 17:42 when he found a rebound and put it over a sprawled Leo Lazarev to make it 2-1 Kingston. Just seconds later Brett Neumann had a glorious chance at a wide-open net but hit the post and it came back to bite the Frontenacs quickly. The Colts took the rebound down the ice and Dmitry Sokolov scored to tie the game. It was a tough way to end the period for Kingston. Instead of leading 3-1, they headed to the room tied 2-2, but had played a great road period to open the series.
It didn't take long for Kingston to jump back ahead when the second period began. Jason Robertson had a great drive to the net and Matt Hotchkiss followed the play to put in the rebound to make it 3-2 for the Frontenacs. The Barrie Colts took over for the rest of the period. Gabe Vilardi was called for holding and it created momentum for the Colts. Although Kingston killed off the penalty, Barrie started creating scoring chances and eventually cashed in. Aaron Luchuk was eventually able to squeeze one through Helvig to tie the game. Barrie took their first lead of the game when Ryan Suzuki worked a give and go with Lucas Chiodo for Suzuki's first career playoff goal. The Colts outshot Kingston 15-3 over the final fifteen minutes of the period and had a 4-3 lead going into the final frame.
The Frontenacs got a major boost early on in their comeback efforts when they got an early power play. The first unit struggled to get much going, but the second unit capitalized when Jakob Brahaney beat Lazarev through traffic to tie the game. The back and forth game continued when Barrie jumped ahead again off the stick of Jason Willms. There was no quit in Kingston's game and they fought back to tie the game one more time. Jason Robertson and Gabe Vilardi played a two-man game and Robertson slid the puck between the legs of Lazarev to even the score. The period came to an end and for the second game in a row the Frontenacs went to overtime tied 5-5.
Unfortunately, the overtime period didn't last long. At 1:58 of the overtime period, Jason Willms put a puck in an awkward spot for Jeremy Helvig and it deflected in. Barrie took a high scoring opening game by a score of 6-5 that gave them a 1-0 series lead.
Game 2 is Friday night in Barrie. The series then shifts to Kingston for game 3 on Sunday at 6 PM. Game 4 will be on Tuesday night at 7 PM. Tickets for game 3 and 4 are available now.
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Ontario Hockey League Stories from April 4, 2018
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