Faced with a stiff dose of adversity this morning at the OHL Cup in Toronto, the Barrie Jr. Colts U16 AAA team was eliminated from the tournament with a quarterfinal loss to the Oakville Rangers.
Barrie's 3-1 defeat to their Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) rivals on Thursday marked their first loss at the event after going undefeated in the round-robin portion at Scotiabank Pond.
Barrie has been one of the top teams in the province all year and were ranked No. 2 in Ontario for most of the season. The Colts came into the tournament as OMHA champions.
The two teams skated to a scoreless first period before Oakville's Jonny Brooks opened the scoring a little over a minute into the second period with his fourth goal of the tournament.
It didn't take long for Barrie to respond as Logan Hawery found the back of the net with a power-play marker, assisted by Kent Greer and Joshua Denes, just 82 seconds later.
Oakville rattled off a pair of goals in just 42 seconds around the 10-minute mark of the middle frame to put the Rangers up 3-1.
Barrie goalie Mateo Beites received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for illegal head contact late in the second period.
Colts netminder Jason Schaubel, who had been lights out during the OHL Cup with a 0.67 goals-against average and a .970 save percentage, came into the game to replace the ejected goaltender. Schaubel was coming off a 15-save shutout performance from Wednesday night's 5-0 victory over Team NOHA.
Oakville held the Colts at bay en route to the quarterfinal win and will now face North York in a battle of the Rangers.
In the other quarterfinal games, North York defeated Toronto 4-1, Peterborough squeaked past Oshawa 2-1, and Vaughan downed Mississauga 3-1.
The semifinals will be played this evening, with North York and Oakville facing off at 6 p.m., followed by Peterborough and Vaughan at 8 p.m. The winners of those two games will meet for the championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Mattamy Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto.
The OHL Cup features the top U16 teams from around Ontario. The tournament is one last opportunity for scouts and fans to see many of the top U16 AAA players from across Ontario and parts of the United States compete in a best-on-best format prior to the 2024 OHL Priority Selection on April 12 and 13.
For more information on the tournament, including scores and a schedule, click here.
