The Wolves' play in game two was much better than their performance in Thursday’s 3-2 loss, but it wasn’t good enough, as Zach Hall scored at 1:17 of the first overtime period, giving the Colts a 4-3 win.
Wolves head coach Paul Fixter agreed his team played better, but said it doesn’t mean much if you don’t get the win.
“The measuring stick in the playoffs is wins and losses,” Fixter said after the game.
“We had more than enough opportunities in regulation to get the win and we have to find a way to capitalize on those chances.
We’ve been harping about turnovers and on the winning goal we don’t get the puck deep, we turn it over and the next thing you know it comes 200 feet the other way. That’s the margin of error this time of year.”
The Wolves can look back on the first two games of the series and see a lack of production from the power-play as a big reason for the 2-0 series deficit. The power play went 0-8 Saturday night and is now 1-14 so far in the playoffs.
“The power-play will have to be the focus before game three,” Fixter said. “To have two 5-on-3s in two games and not score is just not good enough."
The intensity in game two was off the charts compared to game one. Both teams were much more physical which often continued long after the whistle had blown.
The Wolves seemed to feed off that and Ray Huether scored a shorthanded goal at 12:40 of the first period, giving the Wolves their lead of the series only to see the Colts score on the power-play only to see the Colts tie it up just over a minute later.
Dominik Kahun scored for the Wolves early in the second period, but the Colts would get a shorthanded goal of their own late in the period as the two teams went to the dressing room tied at two.
The two teams played cautious in the third and it wasn’t until 18:03 until the Colts scored looking like, at the time to be the winning.
However, the Wolves pulled goalie Franky Palazzese and Mathew Campagna scored with just 10 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” Campagna said before climbing on the bus for the ride back to Sudbury. “Coach was telling me to chip pucks in, keep your game simple and I got rewarded for it. We’re solid at home, so hopefully we can turn it around, win two straight and come back to Barrie with an even series.”
The series now shifts to Sudbury. Game three goes Tuesday night at the Sudbury Arena at 7 p.m. with game four Thursday night at 7 p.m.
Game Notes:
- Barrie out-shot the Wolves 34-32.
- The Wolves were 0-8 on the power-play while the Colts were 1-6.
- 3 Stars: 1) Zach Hall (BAR) 2) Jake Dotchin (BAR) 3) Ray Huether (SUD).
