NORTH BAY, Ont. – The North Bay Battalion played its best game of the season Thursday night by stunning the visiting Ottawa 67’s, the Canadian Hockey League’s top-ranked team, by a score of 6-2.
Luke Moncada scored three goals, the last into an empty net, to eclipse the 30-goal mark for the season and Joe Vrbetic continued his great play in goal as of late, making 28 saves on 30 shots. It was the Battalion’s season-high third straight victory and fourth straight game gaining at least one point.
“People can just look at the scoresheet and go ‘wow’, but when talking about the game, I’m proud of the guys, proud of the effort.” said interim head coach Ryan Oulahen. “In the first period, they had the puck a lot but we were really doing a good job of keeping them to the outside where there wasn’t anything dangerous. We kind of just rolled on that and said to the guys that if that was the worst that was going to happen tonight, we’re going to be fine.”
There were two key stretches in the game, the first midway through the second period where Vrbetic turned away several successive Ottawa chances before Moncada was awarded a penalty shot after being fouled on a shorthanded breakaway. The Battalion captain made a slick deke to his backhand to fool 67’s goaltender Will Cranley, who suffered just his second loss of the season in 17 games played. The goal gave North Bay a 3-2 lead and turned out to be the game-winner.
The second stretch came when the Battalion, which held a one-goal lead going into the third period, put the game away early in the final stanza with quick goals from Alex Christopoulos and Chad Denault. A check from behind by Merrick Rippon on Mitchell Russell resulted in a bizarre series of penalties that gave the Battalion a rarely-seen eight-minute major powerplay opportunity, effectively ended any hope of a comeback for the visitors.
“Maybe they don’t show up on the scoresheet, but there are guys that are contributing big minutes,” said Oulahen when asked about the full team effort. “That’s a huge factor. When Ty Hollett can go out and play minutes, he is going to relieve minutes from a (Nick) Grima or (Simon) Rose. I’ve talked about our forward lines before too, and I feel lately with having (Shane) Bulitka back at centre, it just seems like we have more depth upfront and we’re able to roll and even match a little bit.”
The unexpected Troops win in front of 1,890 fans at Memorial Gardens was their first over Ottawa since Oct. 3, 2018. The two previous meetings this season were lopsided wins for the 67’s at home, winning 6-1 on Dec. 1 and a 9-1 drubbing on Feb. 9. Oulahen pointed out since that recent blowout, the teams have headed in opposite directions with Ottawa on a bit of a slide and the Battalion putting together its best run of the season.
The Battalion played without Mason Primeau and Braden Henderson for the tenth straight game, each still sidelined with injuries, while Paul Christopoulos completed a two-game suspension for a slew-footing penalty incurred in last Saturday’s shutout win at Barrie. Ottawa was without several talented players, including New Jersey prospects Nikita Okhotyuk and Graeme Clarke, and the league’s top-scoring defenceman Noel Hoefenmeyer. The 67’s overage captain has 23 goals and 51 assists for 74 points in 52 games this season, with Thursday marking his first missed contest all season.
With the Kingston Frontenacs treading water and the Niagara IceDogs in complete freefall having lost 13 straight games, the Battalion’s recent hot streak has renewed the possibility of an Eastern Conference playoff berth. North Bay sits eight points behind Niagara with 13 games left on the schedule after Thursday’s games.
“The key is although we’re talking about a lot of positives right now, we don’t want to get too high.” said Oulahen. “We want to just stick to the course, worry about how we’re playing and see where the results take us.”
The Troops will look to extend the winning streak to four games when the West Division-leading Saginaw Spirit visits Memorial Gardens on Sunday afternoon.
