So back we go to Barrie tonight, the 6th and final meeting of the Ontario Hockey League regular season between the Attack and Colts.
To this point, Owen Sound has had exceptional success against Barrie, taking 9 of a possible 10 points in their head to head meetings.
One can’t help but draw a correlation between these results and the results of the 2011 Championship Attack.
In 2010-11, Owen Sound was virtually perfect against Barrie, winning all 6 meetings, the Colts garnering just 1 point that year by virtue of a shootout loss.
But these Barrie Colts bear little resemblance with the current Colts who are trying to catch Belleville for first place overall in the Eastern Conference.
Plus, in fairness to Barrie, there have been some factors in their defeats to Owen Sound this year.
One night in Owen Sound, they had the apparent tying goal waived off with 3 seconds to play.
On other nights their lineup has been missing key players; Mark Schiefele, Aaron Ekblad or Anthony Camara.
Furthermore, Barrie is coming off a shutout win over Guelph, a team that has enjoyed a large amount of success against Owen Sound, and the Colts shutout was accomplished without Schiefele, Ekblad or Mitchell Theoret.
So tonight the Attack who are looking to solidify their hold on third in the Western Conference, will face a big challenge at Barrie before home games Friday & Saturday against Kitchener & Mississauga.
I’m Fred Wallace