Tonight the Owen Sound Attack are in Barrie to face the Colts for the first of six meetings this regular season. Last season the Colts swept the season series 6-0, outscoring the Attack 30-9. This is a very different Barrie Colts team this year and it is safe to assume this years series will not be the blow out it was last year.
Owen Sound head into Barrie with a 3-4-0-0 record on the year. The are coming in off of a big 6-1 win this past Sunday over the Greyhounds. Petrus Palmu had a huge game for the Attack putting up 3 goals on the night. Nick Suzuki also had a 3 point night putting up a pair of assists and a goal. Though a couple other players managed to get a couple points each, you can't overlook the effort by goalie Michael McNiven who made 36 saves.Owen Sound had a decent night with special teams going 1 for 3 on the power play and only allowing 1 goal over 8 penalty kills. Though the Greyhounds haven't had the strongest start to the season, a win like this will only build confidence for a team like Owen Sound and no doubt they will look to extend their winning streak to two games tonight.
Barrie comes into tonight with a 3-3-1-0 record and enters tonight following a loss to the Oshawa Generals this past Sunday 4-2. Fairly strong night for the Colts, out shooting the Gens 28-25 but ultimately it would be specialty teams where they were not able to capitalize. Barrie had 10 chances with the man advantage and was not able to get a single goal. Though they struggled with the man advantage, the team continued to be pretty special on the penalty kill only allowing 1 goal on 8 man advantages for Oshawa. Jason Willms and Anthony Carbonara would score the 2 goals for Barrie.
Keys to Success: The Colts need to be disciplined obviously but they have not struggled short handed. They have only allowed 4 goals while short handed 40 times this season. It will be the power play they will need to improve if they look to turn this record around. You can look at the 6-0 record last season vs the Attack but you might have done that with the Wolves this year who already have 2 wins this season over Barrie after losing the last few years to Barrie. Barrie has also done a decent job of out shooting their opponents this year which has been a struggle over the last couple seasons. Barrie will need to carry that into tonight's game.
Players to Watch: David Ovsjannikov has done an incredible job filling in the crease of Mackenzie Blackwood and can we really be surprised after his efforts last season filling in? Also, Roy Radke is coming off his best game, well, in a while. He was aggressive and always hard on the puck, while generating 3 shots on goal. I would look for him to also have a strong game.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 tonight at BMC.
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