Game Preview: Barrie Colts @ Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. #OHL

Tonight the Barrie Colts face the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at the Essar Centre for the first of two meetings this regular season. Last season they split the season series one game a piece with both teams getting wins on the road. Barrie outscored the Hounds 6-2 over those games.

Happy 45th Birthday to the Hounds! How good does this team look? Obviously getting better with age, too! One of the hottest, if not the hottest team right now in the OHL. They are for sure over the last 10 games with a 9-1-0-0 record and are on a 8 game winning streak. Their last win was a 4-1 win over Windsor. Boris Katchouk was named first star of the game putting up a pair of goals. David Miller scored the game winner late in the 2nd period, while goalie Joseph Raaymakers would make 35 saves on 36 shots faced. The win was his 12th of the season which has him tied for 4th most in the league among goalies.

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Barrie is 21 but not looking so good.. Currently sitting in second last in the division and riding a 2 game losing streak. They have only won 2 games in the last 10 with one lose in the shootout. That is a total of 5 points of a possible 20. Yikes. This past week the team got a huge 6-5 win over Hamilton, lost 4-1 to London in a game that until late, was close. They really came out strong and had a solid night until a late collapse. And the 5-1 loss to Niagara on Saturday was a killer. The team only scored 1 goal on 10 power plays and it was Cordell James who got it. Over the last 2 games he has been the only Colts to register a goal. Barrie wasn't able to do anything in front of the goal and most shots generated came from the blue line. Murray and Brassard were responsible for 12 of the teams 34 shots. Really not a strong effort and 34 shots with 10 man advantages is really unacceptable. I would imagine Hawerchuk was putting together tough practices to prepare for this weekend.

Keys to Success: Don't take penalties. Soo is 20.6% with the man advantage this season and will make them pay. They went scoreless with the PP against Windsor and I would be shocked to see that happen again. Morgan Frost has 7 PP goals for the Hounds which is tied for 4th most in the league, while Bobby MacIntyre has the 3rd mos PP assists with 12. The Colts will need to stay out of the box and if they do find themselves in penalty trouble they will need to try and control those guys.

Players to Watch: Other than the 2 mentioned in the keys to success section, Colts captain Cordell James has been solid for the team and has been putting up some points. I would look for him to come out hard in an attempt to get the rest of the team going.

Puck drop is set for 7:07 at Esar Centre.