It was a tough way to end what had been a very good road trip for the North Bay Battalion. After wins over Peterborough and Kingston on Thursday and Friday respectively, the Battalion were looking to make it three in a row while trying to topple the undefeated Ottawa 67’s.
However, the home side gained a second period lead they would not relinquish and handed the Troops a 4-1 loss to send North Bay into their home opener on Thursday with a 3-2-0 record.
Ottawa opened the scoring at 8:37 of the first period. The Battalion were on the power play when they turned over the puck at the Ottawa blue line, allowing Vinzenz Rohrer to flip it down the ice, finding Brad Gardiner (4) on a partial break away. Gardiner brought the puck into the zone and after his initial shot on Charlie Robertson was stopped, he banked in the rebound for a short-handed goal. It was Gardiners fourth goal in his last four games.
The tandem of Kyle Jackson and Matvey Petrov continued their hot streak to start the season by tying the game about a minute later. At 9:29 Petrov took a pass from Captain Liam Arnsby into the left side circle, who then quickly sent it to Jackson right on top of the blue paint. Jackson easily slid the puck into the back of the net as Ottawa net-minder Max Donoso came way out of crease to anticipate the Petrov shot.
The assist gives Petrov four on the season and seven points overall through his first five games, while Jackson's fourth goal on the year was also his seventh point. But that was the only marker North Bay could get on the scoreboard against the 67’s.
At 5:42 of the second period, Luca Pinelli (5) sent off a one-time shot in the high slot that found its way through traffic and through the five-hole of Robertson, to put the 67’s ahead 2-1.
In the later stages of the third period, Battalion forward Owen Van Steensel was called for tripping. With time winding down on the Ottawa power play, first-year forward Henry Mews put his hometown team further ahead by blasting a shot from the left side circle that snuck under the blocker side arm of Charlie Robertson at 13:02.
Calgary Flames 6th round draft pick Jack Beck (who scored 22 goals last season) got his first of the season just over a minute later at 14:22 to round out the scoring and giving Ottawa a 3-0-0 record and remain the only undefeated team in the Ontario Hockey League.
The next time the Troops will be on the ice will be for their home opener, delayed by the outstanding Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event which has taken over Memorial Gardens for the better part of the last week. This will be the latest in the calendar year that the Battalion will host their home opener, beating the inaugural season opener, which took place on October 11th 2013, which was also against Peterborough.
This will be the fourth time since moving to North Bay in which the Battalion host the Petes in their home opener. The Battalion are 1-2-0 in those games winning 7-4 last year on October 7th. They lost the first two meetings, 4-1 on September 25th 2015 and 2-1 on October 11th 2013. You can catch that game broadcasted live on the Frontline Broadcast YouTube channel.