Shamar Moses made his presence felt on his first night in Battalion green. The newest member of the Troops led his team to a come from behind victory, beating the Otters 3-2 in a shootout on Friday night in Erie.
Moses had an assist on the game tying goal with just seconds left in regulation, before stealing away the extra point with his clinching goal in the shootout. Owen Van Steensel also scored against Otter's goaltender Noah Erliden (2-1-0-1) in the shootout, while Mike McIvor (3-1-0-0) made a big split legged save on Erie’s first shooter Dylan Edwards. Malcolm Spence missed on the Otters second shot.
The win snaps a two-game skid for North Bay (4-2-0-0) who will visit the Niagara IceDogs tomorrow (Saturday) evening, ending a streak of six straight games on the road.
Special teams played a big part in the outcome with North Bay giving up an early power play goal, but getting one back late on the man advantage. In all they were 1 for 6 on the power play and 6 for 7 on the penalty kill against the top ranked power play in the league. The Otters came into the game with a 33.3% success rate on the power play, converting 6 goals on 18 chances through their first four games.
And early in the second period, on their second opportunity of the game, the Otters struck for their second goal at 2:45. McIvor made some initial early saves on that penalty kill, but he couldn’t do it all himself when the Otters had two guys standing unguarded near the net, and the puck slipped through towards the near side post and Wesley Royston (1) just managed to tap the puck past the glove of a sprawling McIvor for his first career OHL goal, giving Erie a 2-0 lead.
However, McIvor was unbreakable after that point, keeping his team in the game and stopping a total of 40 shots, with many of them coming under high pressure situations.
After going down 2-0, North Bay answered back at 6:23 of the second period. Jacob LeBlanc entered the zone up front before dropping the puck to Ethan Procyszyn (5) who took a wrist shot from just above the right-side circle, beating Erliden on the high glove side, getting North Bay on the board, 2-1.
It was LeBlanc (2) who sent the game into overtime, finishing with a two-point night. With less than a minute to play and the Otters already down by a man, the home side was then called for high sticking, and with the Troops pulling their goaltender, North Bay had a 6-on-3 but couldn’t score and Erie dumped the puck down the ice toward the empty net. The puck slid by the post, giving North Bay one last rush up the ice, now at 6-on-4 with the first penalized Otters player coming out of the box, a penalty they were given for too many men on the ice.
The Battalion found some space down low with Andrew LeBlanc controlling the play. He sent it to the point to Moses, who slid it across to LeBlanc who walked in shot the puck high, which sailed over Erliden’s shoulder to tie the game with just three seconds remaining in regulation.
Both teams had chances to end the game in overtime but both goaltenders came up with game saving stops.
Erie’s Pano Fimis had a partial breakaway into the North Bay zone, then cut across the middle and got a shot past defender Wyatt Kennedy, but McIvor made the save off the chest and covered up the rebound that was threatening to trickle away.
With 1:50 left in overtime, McIvor came up with two phenomenal stops on back-to-back plays to keep the overtime period going. He made an initial right pad save and then falling backwards he threw his stick out to make sure the puck didn’t cross the line, and the puck was cleared out of the area. Erie came right back in on the right wing, shot low blocker side again, and McIvor’s kick save went directly onto the stick of Terrence who took a shot immediately and McIvor bounced over to his right, threw out the glove and just managed to slap the puck away, stopping the Otters from getting the game winning goal.
The Otters opened the scored early in the game when Sam Alfano (4) got control of the puck at the top of the zone and ripped a shot past McIvor at 4:32. It’s the 62nd career goal for the former second round pick (#23 overall in 2020 by Peterborough). It allowed the Otters to capitalize on a slow start for North Bay who were outshot 19-5 after the opening twenty minutes.
The 19 shots the Otters fired in the first period are the most the Battalion have allowed in a single period this season, surpassing the 18 they gave up to both Peterborough and Kingston during those contests last weekend.
North Bay got better as the game went on and there were plenty of chances for both sides to break this game open.
In the second period, Jacob Therrien got a breakaway at 12:28 and went right down the middle, shooting five-hole, but the stop was made by Erliden to keep the Otters ahead 2-1.
The teams then traded chances as the second came to a close. With just over a minute remaining the puck bounced around in the slot in the North Bay end and was almost redirected off a Troops skate and into their own net, but somehow McIvor was able to get his skate on it, and kicked it out to the top of the zone. The Battalion picked up the loose puck and created a 2-on-1 chance but Erliden made the save on the initial shot, and the rebound.
The Battalion had a power play opportunity midway through the third period and right off the draw got a great scoring chance with two shots from within the slot. But Erliden made the stop on both chances, and the Otters not only cleared the puck but got a shorthanded breakaway. McIvor made the save, but the play drew a penalty, which prematurely ended the North Bay power play.
With the teams at four skaters aside, Nolan Laird went end to end on a smooth skating play and wound up hitting the post from inside the hashmarks, coming oh-so-close to tying the game with less than 1:30 left on the clock.
The Battalion managed to not only pull themselves out of a 2-0 hole, but they outshot the Otters 29-18 over the final two regulation periods and were down just 42-38 in that category when it was all said and done.
They’ll look to make it two in a row when they visit the Niagara IceDogs for the first time this season with the puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
