Vancouver Canucks Prospect Riley Patterson Steals the Spotlight in Barrie Colts Thriller

It was an exciting night for fans in attendance at the Sadlon Arena in Barrie, Ontario on Thursday night as the Colts hosted their long-time rivals, the Sudbury Wolves for the first half of a home-and-home.

This year's Barrie Colts roster has been a fun one to watch, with a ton of NHL prospects including 2024 first-rounders Cole Beaudoin and Emil Hemming, along with Vancouver Canucks 2024 fourth-round pick Riley Patterson, among others.

Patterson has had a pretty good season so far and coming into Thursday's game, had 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 20 games.

In a bit of a surprising twist, the Colts went down 3-0 after the first period and had to claw their way back into the contest and proceeded to fire 20 shots on net in the middle frame, only scoring once.

In the third period, the aforementioned Cole Beaudoin and Emil Hemming got the Colts back into it, with the Finnish forward scoring with one minute remaining to tie things up at 3-3.

In overtime, Riley Patterson went in on a breakaway where he beat Wolves netminder Nate Krawchuk glove-side, giving the Colts their 16th win of the 2024-25 season, moving them into second place in the OHL's Eastern Conference.

Patterson and the Barrie Colts have been playing quite well of late too, winning three in a row and seven of their last ten.

It's been over ten years since the Barrie Colts have made it to the OHL Final, with their last appearance coming in 2013 where they lost in Game 7 on a Bo Horvat goal with less than one second remaining on the clock.

With the way they've been playing this season and the current group they have right now, there's a pretty good chance that Riley Pattersson and the team will have a deep playoff run in the spring and a shot at the OHL Championship.