They aren’t done yet!
Sandis Vilmanis became the overtime hero as he kept the Battalion season alive with his 9th goal of the post-season at 6:02 of the overtime period, to give the Battalion a 5-4 win in game four, avoiding the sweep and sending the series back to Oshawa.
“I don’t remember everything that happened to be honest,” says Vilmanis.
“We got it into the zone and their defense committed to (Liam) Arnsby and he found me in the middle I just had to finish it.”
The goal was reminiscent of the one Ryan Kujawinski scored for the Battalion during the 2015 post-season, a two-on-one rush into the zone resulting in the overtime game-winning goal on home ice against the Barrie Colts in the Eastern Conference semi-final. Both Kujawinski and Vilmanis were trade deadline acquisitions by the Battalion and both gave their respective clubs an offensive boost after joining North Bay.
Vilmanis, a Florida Panthers prospect, finished the night with four points, including two goals, but almost ended the night as the scapegoat when in the second period, he turned over the puck at the blue line allowing Generals forward Dylan Roobroeck (8) to score his first goal of the series on a shorthanded breakaway at 6:35, to get the Generals their first lead of the game, 3-2.
“I was pissed at myself, that was my mistake,” says Vilmanis. “I just tried to keep thinking positive and the guys really helped me on the bench saying ‘we’re going to get this back.”’
And get it back they did.
The Battalion overcame two third period deficits, getting goals from defenceman Tnias Mathurin (1) at 9:55 and Paul Christopoulos (2) at 18:51 to tie the game at 3-3 and then 4-4 respectively.
With 1:09 left on the clock Paul Christopoulos fired an absolute rocket toward the Generals net that nobody in the league, let alone the league's top netminder Jacob Oster was going to save.
Meantime, the Mathurin goal came as the result of a Dalyn Wakelyn pressure play deep in the zone. Wakely threw a huge hit behind the net, allowing North Bay to have some space out front. The puck went into the corner where Anthony Romani flipped it out into the slot to where defenceman Tnias Mathurin was pinching in.
The big defender stepped up into a powerful slap shot that got by Oster to tie the game 3-3 at 9:55. It was the first career OHL playoff goal for the Detroit Red Wings 2022 5th round draft pick.
“Those guys are unsung heroes,” says Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen about Christopoulos and Mathurin.
“You should’ve heard some of the guesses in the coach's room of who was going to score the overtime winner before overtime started.
Oulahen describes his veteran defenders as "glue guys."
"They don’t always show up on the scoresheet but they come out and play massive roles and massive minutes for us. That was a great shot by Tnias and Paul has had that kind of shot for us in the past, putting it in the perfect spot and an amazing way to climb back into it.”
With their backs against the walls, the Battalion was going to have to have their most complete effort of the series and put the pressure on the Generals and they emulated that game plan off the hop.
The Troops captain caught the Generals off guard on the opening shift of the game, scoring his first goal of these playoffs. The play started with Seattle Kraken prospect Ty Nelson taking the puck from the blue line and driving wide to the net down the left side. His backhanded shot went off the pads of Oster and right to the waiting stick of Liam Arnsby, who was standing in front of the net and made the tap in to give North Bay a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game.
“I didn’t expect anything less,” says Oulahen when asked about the team's quick start. “I know it's easy to say after the result, but there was just a calm feeling over the group today and you could just sense it. You just knew that they were going to fight for each other no matter what tonight.”
Ethan Procyszn just missed giving the Battalion a 2-0 lead just over five minutes in when the Battalion rushed into the zone and got the puck toward the net, with Oster losing sight of it. It was caught in a few skates, came lose in the crease area and there was noticeable space between the post and Oster's pad, but none of the Battalion players in the area could tap it in, getting tied up by the Oshawa defense.
The Battalion continued to push and for the first time since the first game of the series North Bay managed to score back-to-back goals in a game. The 2-0 lead came courtesy of Vilmanis (8) at 7:35 of the first. Vilmanis got a pass from Christopoulos (who finished +3 on the night) in the neutral zone and similar to the Nelson play, Vilmanis drove wide down the left side before charging to the net. He pulled the puck to the top of the crease and took a backhanded shot that went up and over the shoulder of Oster to double the Battalion lead, sending the 4,100+ in attendance at Memorial Gardens into an early frenzy.
“He’s going to go on and play in the NHL, but he’s going to remember games like this. In this community and with this crowd probably more so than he will in Florida with the Panthers,” says Oulahen. “We have to turn the page to make sure this isn’t a one-game celebration for us. We have to enjoy this quickly because this is just one and now, we have to go into Oshawa on Friday and that is going to be a big challenge.”
The challenge all series has been slowing the Generals momentum as twice the Battalion have had early 2-0 leads which they couldn’t hold onto. After game three, Oulahen talked about trying to win the final five minutes of every period, something he felt they haven’t done well this series and in game four, the Generals struck again late in the frame.
The goal at 17:00 came courtesy of the guys who have been dangerous all series long with Calum Ritchie, getting a pass across the slot to Beckett Sennecke, whose shot was deflected back to Connor Lockhart (5) who buried it past Battalion goaltender Mike McIvor to get Oshawa on the board. Coming into the game, that trio produced seven goals and 18 points. The rest of the Generals had 15 points combined.
It was the only goal the Generals would get in the period and it was just the second time all series in which the Battalion went into the intermission with a lead.
It didn’t take long for the Generals to tie the game in the second with Sennecke (9) burying the puck from in close at 3:50 to even things up at 2-2 before the Roobroeck goal gave Oshawa the lead.
The Battalion were pressing in the opening stages of the third period. Every line that came out was getting physical, making smart passes and generating a good amount of o-zone time and just before the half-way point of the period, the Battalion found the opening they were looking for getting the goal from Mathurin.
This series hasn’t been short of controversial calls and another one went the Generals way, leaving the Troops, and their fans, scratching their heads after a goal was allowed to stand despite what seemed to be clear incidental contact with goaltender McIvor.
Lockhart found his way in front of McIvor and made contact with him as a Sennecke (10) shot came in from the point and got through for a goal.
The play was reviewed and despite it looking almost identical to a play that resulted in a disallowed goal for the Battalion in game three, this one, inexplicably was allowed to stand, giving the Generals a 4-3 lead at 10:51. That's three goal reviews in four games that haven’t been favourable to the Battalion, after a game one review also resulted in a generous goal for the Generals.
The Sennecke goal in game four preceded the Christopoulos goal that sent the game into overtime.
Early in the overtime period the Generals were pushing on the attack and McIvor came up with some big saves.
“They had some time to regroup between the third and overtime and they really threw everything at us in those first couple of minutes,” says Oulahen. “We were talking to our guys about going into overtime of not wanting to press. Just playing our way and we’ll find something to free up. I just had a feeling that if we could just get it going into the offensive zone that something good was going to happen.”
The Generals played without overage defenseman and Powassan product Connor Punnett who has been a big physical presence in this series. The Dallas Stars prospect left game three with an apparent lower body injury and was listed to skate with the team for game four, but after coming out for warmups, he left and wasn’t dressed for the game.
On the other side of the equation, the Battalion welcomed back their regular season leading scorer Anthony Romani, who finished the year with 58 goals and 111points, but has been held to just one point in the post-season, exiting the very first game of the playoffs with a lower body injury. Romani rejoined his regular linemates Wakely and Owen Van Steensel on the top line and finished the night with one assist.
“Getting Romani back was huge for us,” says Oulahen. “It allows us to do different things with the lineup. When you’re able to put together one of the best lines this year in junior hockey, that’s going to be a way for us to develop more offense in five-on-five situations.”
The Battalion scored all their goals at even strength in this game, going 0/3 on the power play and 1/1 on the penalty kill.
Oulahen says the game came down to the players having the mental fortitude of bouncing back after the goal Oshawa scored in the third that got reviewed but still stood as a good goal.
“As the series has gone on and it's no secret about how some of the calls have gone, but I thought we were going to have a good chance on that call, but at the same time I knew I was at risk of losing the timeout,” says Oulahen. “I noticed the clock right away and I knew we were going to have the natural timeout and that’s when we set up all our plays and all our scenarios. Then we left it to the group, we let them go and that’s how it went.”
North Bay will look to extend the series again on Friday night in Oshawa.
To listen to the Frontline Post Game Podcast summarizing the exciting game please click HERE
