The North Bay Battalion evened the Eastern Conference Finals with a 3-1 win over the Peterborough Petes in game 2 Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gardens.
“It’s a big result for us today for sure to bounce back,” explained head coach Ryan Oulahen. “What a hockey game. You’re witnessing two really good teams go at it, a bit of a chess match going out there.
“Ultimately I thought we came out really urgent in that third period and found a way. Huge victory to go down to Peterborough at 1-1.”
“It’s great, it gave us a lot of confidence,” added Troops captain Liam Arnsby. “I thought Friday we could have had it, it was a close game, but going on the road with a win is always good.”
Even with the setback, the Petes were happy with their performance in Game 2.
“It was hard fought and tight, and we knew we were going to get their best tonight,” said Petes head coach Rob Wilson. “I thought we were prepared pretty well. There were times I thought we could have been better, but overall we came up here and got one, playing one of the best teams in junior hockey.
“Nothing is easy.”
The Battalion broke the ice in the second period as Kyle Jackson banged home a rebound to open the scoring at 8:18 of the middle frame.
The Petes responded 7 minutes later as Brennan Othmann banged home a rebound of his own from a bad angle to even the score at 1-1.
Then with under 5 minutes remaining in the third Liam Arnsby ripped a shot from the right circle past a screened Michael Simpson for the Battalion 2-1 lead.
Owen Van Steensel added an empty netter with 44 seconds left to ice the win.
“I was just playing hard,” Arnsby said on the final few minutes where he scored and hit everything in sight. “Last five minutes with a one-goal lead so I wanted to ramp it up a bit.”
After last year’s sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Battalion now have one win under their belts.
However, for Oulahen and Arnsby, they are done with the comparisons.
“I think it’s good, but we’re so far past last year,” said Oulahen. “This is a different group, a mature group, a group that’s learned, so I don’t always love comparing year to year.
“Our story to date this playoffs is been extremely different which is good. Another big thing is there is a lot of big things we have accomplished as a team, but we don’t really celebrate. We have our eyes on one thing and even today, it’s a big win but it just makes the series 1-1 and we want to keep going here.”
“As coach said, we have a lot of different pieces from last year,” added Arnsby. “I think we’re in a totally different situation. Obviously to get the first win is nice, but we have to keep going.”
Game 3 goes from Peterborough on Tuesday. You can listen to the game live on the Frontline Gameday Broadcast YouTube channel starting at 6:50 p.m.
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