There was no triumphant return to Barrie for former Colts forward Ryan Suzuki on Thursday night.
With the Saginaw Spirit in town for some Ontario Hockey League action, the Colts' Aidan Brown scored midway through the third period to tie the game at 5-5 before Ethan Cardwell, who was acquired in the deal for Suzuki in January, potted the overtime winner.
Suzuki, who the Colts selected first overall in the 2017 OHL draft, was traded to the Spirit in January at the OHL trade deadline as Barrie made several moves to get younger.
Thursday night marked Suzuki's return to the city.
In 150 regular-season games with the Colts over parts of three seasons, Suzuki scored 45 goals and added 98 assists. He also had one goal and three assists in 12 playoff games in 2017-18, his rookie OHL season.
A Carolina Hurricanes prospect, Suzuki has 10 goals and 26 points in 16 since being dealt to Saginaw. The London, Ont., native, who was wearing No. 6 with Saginaw, scored for the Spirit Thursday night. He was still wearing a full shield following an eye injury suffered earlier this season.
Barrie went down 2-0 early on goals from Josh Bloom and Dalton Duhart, another former Colt.
But the Colts scored three unanswered goals to close out the first peroid, off the sticks of Nicholas Porco with his ninth of the season, Ryan Del Monte with his third, and Anthony Tabak with his ninth on a shorthanded penalty shot.
The Spirit regained the lead in the second period on goals from Suzuki and Damien Giroux to go up 4-3.
Colts overager Josh Nelson knotted the game again, at 4-4, with his 12th of the year at the 12-minute mark of the second before Blade Jenkins restored the Spirit's lead at 5-4 about four minutes later.
Brown tied the game again to eventually send the game to the extra frame.
Cardwell scored the game-winning goal 1:34 into overtime.
Barrie goalie Arturs Silovs picked up his 15th win of the season after stopping 46 of 51 shots, while Saginaw's Tristan Lennox was saddled with the loss with 22 saves on 28 shots.
Tabak and Nelson both had three-point nights for the Colts with a goal and two assists each, while Cardwell finished with two points (G,A).
With the victory, Barrie (26-23-3-2) now sits in fifth place in the OHL's Eastern Conference with 57 points, seven points back of the Oshawa Generals and two points up on the sixth-place Hamilton Bulldogs with two games in hand.
The Colts host the Windsor Spitfires (32-17-5, 5th in the West) on Saturday night at Sadlon Arena.
NOTES: On Thursday night, the Colts also began wearing a special sticker on their helmets as a tribute to Springwater Township teenager Mark Ramolla, a former Barrie Minor Hockey Association (BMHA) player who died in a snowmobile accident last weekend. The stickers will adorn the Colts' helmets for the rest of the season. A Go Fund Me account has been set up to help his family with expenses.
