North Bay, ON – The old sports cliché of “your best players have to be your best players” rang true for the Battalion on Thursday night, with its top guns catching fire late in the third period to lead North Bay to a 5-2 win over the Western Conference-leading Soo Greyhounds.
Down 2-1 with under five minutes to play, Brandon Coe showed patience on a zone entry, waiting for an opening before threading a beautiful pass across the offensive zone to Matvey Petrov who banked it off a defender and in to tie the game at 15:13.
Then with an offensive zone draw with three minutes left, head coach Ryan Oulahen put his best three available forwards (Coe, Petrov and Mitchell Russell) on the ice together and it immediately paid off, with Russell looking off his pass from the left corner before firing a bullet across the crease to a waiting Petrov who tapped it home.
Kyle McDonald added insurance with an empty netter before Russell added an empty netter of his own to finish the scoring. The final scoresheet showed Petrov and Russell each with two goals and an assist. It was a solid return to the lineup for Petrov, who missed the previous five games with an upper-body injury.
“What he (Petrov) brings is this aura that’s contagious, it’s fun, it’s energetic,” said Oulahen.
“He’s going right when warm-up starts. He’s got so much energy and he really provides that to our bench. As the game went on, he got better and elite players, which he is, find ways to make big plays at the right time.”
Coe added two assists of his own, but it was not enough to regain the OHL scoring lead. Sault Ste. Marie’s Rory Kerins had a goal and an assist in the first period for the Greyhounds to stay atop the league scoring race with 69 points (26+43), one more than Coe’s 68 (26+42).
Almost forgotten following the offensive outburst at the end of the third was a second straight rock-solid performance from goaltender Joe Vrbetic. He twice denied Greyhounds’ breakaways and was unbeatable after allowing two goals in the first, finishing with 26 saves on 28 shots against.
“He’s been really solid as of late, and he’s really stepped up to the plate for us,” said Oulahen of Vrbetic.
“It was a really tight game. I think both teams at times took over the hockey game, and both teams were really competitive in terms of battles and competes.”
The new provincial limit of 500 spectators came into effect Monday and tonight marked the first game the Battalion played in front of fans since New Year’s Eve. It had been 10 games in a row, including six dates at Memorial Gardens, that the Troops had played in empty buildings.
“We didn’t realize how amazing 500 people in the building would be. You feel the energy. You come out in warm-up and you feel an extra buzz. They’re awesome, and I think it provided us a little bit of energy in the third”
The Battalion wraps up the season series with the Soo by hosting them again tomorrow night.
“It’s going to be a completely different hockey game," said Oulahen.
"We just said that to the players. Enjoy this win, but we have to reset. It’s going to be another competitive, tight-checking affair and probably have a little bit of a playoff feel once again.”
