Where were you when the lights went out on Bayview?
If you were in the Barrie Molson Centre on Thursday, you didn’t see much hockey. You wouldn’t have seen much of anything.
Game one of the OHL playoffs between the Barrie Colts and the Mississauga Steelheads was all set to go until Mother Nature sent a huge ice storm to Ontario and changed those plans. Although he admits it’s a rarity, it’s not the first time Colts Head Coach Dale Hawerchuk has had the lights go out on hockey day.
"Kind of reminds me of the old Boston Gardens days,” said the NHL Hall of Famer. “It certainly is a tough thing to be ready to go and then have to pack it in for the night, but we’re hoping everybody gets out of here and back home safe.”
With approximately 14,000 customers without power, reports of limbs and trees down in some areas and even some transformers blowing, Coach Hawerchuk was thinking little of the game but did know that whenever his team did hit the ice they would be ready for a hungry Steelheads squad.
“They’ll be tough as most skilled, young teams are,” said Hawerchuk. “We just have to be as prepared for that game as we were for it tonight.”
The postponed Thursday game has been rescheduled for Monday at 7:30 p.m.
If you had tickets for game one, bring them Monday and they will honoured then. Saturday’s game will go as planned at the BMC for regular 7:30 p.m. start time.
The OHL top points scorer Kevin Labanc feels the fan’s pain as he and his teammates were hoping to keep the momentum of a successful season going and hit the ice. Waiting a few days though won’t change the focus of the team said Barrie’s single season points record holder.
“Last year the fire bell went off but this was definitely something new to me and the guys,” said Labanc. “But we tried to stay loose and keep upbeat in case the game was started. There was a lot of jokes and warming up, but we’ll regroup and be mentally and physically ready for Saturday.”
Super fan Ryan Noble has been to many games for his Colts, but believes a power outage ending the night is a first. Despite the weather outside and the dark conditions inside, Noble was actually fine with the situation.
“This is actually kind of cool when you think about it,” said the Colts blogger. “It sucks that game one is now put off, but look around the arena. Everyone’s in good spirits and just talking to one another. This is just another story for us die-hard fans to talk about in years to come.”
