Make it three in a row for the streaking North Bay Battalion after a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Kingston Frontenacs.
“I thought today was a good hockey game overall,” Battalion head coach Ryan Oulahen stated. “Without being in the playoffs, that’s as close to what it will be like. Every play mattered, there were big plays on both sides, back and forth, it was a really good hockey game.
“I thought we did a good job of limiting their chances. With their good players, you’re not going to stop them, but you’re going to limit them. Joe (Vrbetic) was good in net, our depth was really good again tonight.”
After a back and forth start to the first, Anthony Romani (6) got North Bay on the board after a surgical passing play from Nikita Tarasevich and Cam Gauvreau. Romani, who hadn’t scored until February 4th against the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds, has three goals in his last two games.
“I’m so impressed with those guys right now,” Oulahen said on his fourth line.
“For us to have belief against any line, because you could argue that’s our best forechecking line and the line that creates momentum for us and that might have been a turning page for us in this game.
“We were able to roll four lines and they shortened their bench and that was huge for us.”
Five minutes later, Mitchell Russell, who was celebrating his 21st birthday, added on with his 31st to make it 2-0 Troops.
Starting off the second quickly, North Bay product Lucas Edmonds got the Frontenacs on the board 27 seconds in with his 27th. North Bay answered back almost 10 minutes later as a Matvey Petrov pass from behind the Kingston net found Avery Winslow (3) out front, who was able to beat netminder Leevi Meriläinen. Just before the end of the period, it looked like Petrov had scored his 31st to put the Battalion up 4-1, but the goal was called back thanks to a missed offside call.
Kingston began to press in the third and eventually made it a 3-2 game as Edmonds (28) netted his second. However, in the final 10 minutes with pressure from Kingston, North Bay’s defence bent but did not break as Russell (32) eventually found the empty net to secure the 4-2 victory for the Troops.
“It’s funny because when they scored in my head right away it was like ‘ok, let’s see what we’ve got and see what the guys have got,’” Oulahen assessed.
“You see the blocked shots, the second efforts, the diving for pucks, it was fun.”
The Battalion is back in action next Friday when they travel down Highway 17 to take on the Sudbury Wolves for the first of two in the “Nickel City.”
“We just went through the two-game back to back with them and it was tough hockey,” Oulahen explained.
“We’re going to expect the same. A long week to recover which is nice and we’ll get rested up, get our bodies prepared and attack that challenge next weekend.”
