The Barrie Colts earned their third consecutive road victory Friday night, defeating the Guelph Storm 8-5 at the Sleeman Centre.
Barrie opened up a 6-0 lead in the first twenty-two minutes of the game, and managed to survive a third period comeback attempt by Guelph that saw the Storm score five goals in the span of 2:38.
OHL points leader Tanner Pearson scored twice for Barrie (17-10-2-1), while Ivan Telegin had a goal and two assists, Mark Scheifele had two goals and two assists, Steven Beyers had a goal and two assists and Daniel Erlich added a goal and an assist.
Eric Locke also scored and Colin Behenna added a pair of helpers for the Colts, who will finish off the week at home Saturday against Brampton Battalion at the Barrie Molson Centre.
Matt Finn, Scott Kosmachuk, Cody McNaughton, Tanner Richard and Andrey Pedan each scored third period goals for Guelph (13-12-1-3).
Barrie scored twice on the power play to open up a two-goal lead in the first period, and opened up a 6-0 lead two minutes into the second frame, capitalizing on a shaky Guelph defence corps.
Scheifele opened the scoring at 10:28 of the first period with a power-play goal, nicely deflecting a slapshot by Aaron Ekblad just under the blocker of Sparks.
Barrie increased their lead to two minutes later with another marker on the power play by Locke, who one-timed a cross-ice pass from Telegin.
Just 1:46 later, Sparks was pulled in favour of Brandon Foote after Beyers scored with a wrist shot over the glove of Sparks to extend the Colts’ lead to three.
Pearson made it 4-0 at 17:53 of the first, picking up a loose puck in the slot and snapping it off the post and in.
The Colts came out strong again in the second, with Erlich beating an outstretched Foote after the Storm netminder had made a strong pad save on Beyers.
49 seconds later, Pearson converted a beautiful saucer pass from Behenna to make it 6-0.
Midway in the third period, Barrie got into penalty trouble, and the Storm capitalized, as Finn broke Windsor’s shutout bid on a two-man advantage, and Kosmachuk added another power-play goal to cut the lead to 6-2.
After McNaughton and Richard scored to make it 6-4, Colts head coach Dale Hawerchuk called a timeout, but the team didn’t respond, as Pedan scored to make it 6-5.
Telegin scored on a two-on-one rush to put the Colts up 7-5 with only 1:17 remaining in the third and then Scheifele fired it into an empty net to ensure the Colts’ victory.
