The North Bay Battalion have pushed their winning streak to four in a row after a 4-1 victory over the Owen Sound Attack.
“I think when you put these two teams together, it happens in exhibition as well, I have said earlier this week as to why you pick this team to play against is they pride themselves on how hard they work,” observed head coach Ryan Oulahen.
“It’s exactly the type of game it was, especially the first period. It was fast, physical, it was hard and the type of game we like to be in.”
After a first period that had a playoff feel to it, including an Alexander Lukin vs Jackson Stewart fight, Liam Arnsby (10) broke the goose egg with 21 seconds left. The goal put the Troops up 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
In the second, the Battalion pounced off a nice passing play by Matvey Petrov and Dalyn Wakely, finding Anthony Romani (18) wide open to beat the Attack’s Nick Chenard. Romani (19) found twine a second time, this time on a powerplay with a snipe over the blocker shoulder of Chenard.
In the third, Owen Sound managed to slide a puck under Dom DiVincentiis’ pad as Thomas Chafe (4) was credited with the goal. That marker came 5:53 into the frame. Later in the period, Kyle McDonald (28) finished off the scoring to make the final 4-1.
The Attack’s goal was the first allowed by a Battalion netminder since David Goyette beat DiVincentiis 5:23 in to the second period of Thursday, March 2 game against Sudbury. That’s a streak of 201:16 minutes without allowing a goal shared between DiVincentiis and Charlie Robertson.
“They’ve been great,” Oulahen said on his goaltending tandem. “It’s a total team effort and it starts in the net with those guys. It’s been awesome and hopefully, we can continue to play well defensively for them because we feel like we have strength in the net going forward.”
The Troops will head south on Friday to take on the Oshawa Generals before welcome the London Knights to town Sunday.