The Battalion and the Colts saw plenty of each other last season, between the six head-to-head divisional games during the regular season and the seven game Eastern Conference semi-final series. Five of those games went into overtime, including three in the postseason, so it was only fitting that they picked up right where they left off with Thursday night’s season opener in Barrie being decided in a shootout.
It was the home side coming out with the two points after Seattle Krakken prospect (2023 Round 1, #20) Eduard Sale got the lone goal in the skills competition to lift Barrie over North Bay 4-3.
It was a game in which Barrie never led in regulation, but overcame three separate one-goal deficits, the last one courtesy of The Captain came through in the clutch for the home side late in the game. Powassan, Ontario born Connor Punnett was named as the Colts Captain for the 2023-24 season and with less than 30 seconds left in the game, down by a goal, he was wide open on the far side of the ice, received a clean pass and blasted the puck past North Bay Goaltender Charlie Robertson to tie the game 3-3.
Punnett’s goal erased his error from earlier in the period. Part of the 6’2” 202lb defencemans game is to play big and play aggressive – but he may have been too aggressive as a hit thrown at the 14:00 mark of the third period led to an interference call against him.
The Battalion took advantage and stayed aggressive around the Colts net on the ensuing power play and they got rewarded when Barrie couldn’t get the puck cleared out of the slot and newcomer Iggy Pazii found it among some skates and flipped it past several players, including the goaltender, for his first career OHL goal giving the Troops a 3-2 lead in the third.
Both goaltenders came up huge in the overtime period. There was a stop by Barrie’s Ben West in overtime denying Tinias Mathurin on a penalty shot with just over a minute remaining in the extra frame while Robertson made a save on a three-on-one rush into the zone. Robertson looked good in his season debut, making 27 saves, while West countered with 36 in picking up his 13th career win. He was 12-7-3-1 last year, while Robertson suffers his second career shootout loss. He was 12-6-0-1 in his rookie season last year.
North Bay got on the board in the first period with Owen Van Steensel working hard to earn his first point of the season in setting up Anthony Romani with a goal.
Van Steensel stole the puck from the Colts inside the Barrie end. He tried to feed a pass through the slot which got blocked by a diving defender, but Van Steensel got the puck back on his stick, brought it towards the goal line and just before going behind the net he played it in front right onto Romani’s tape. With the goaltender going down, Romani sent the puck high and over the stick side shoulder to put the Troops ahead 1-0 at 6:42. Both Van Steensel and Romani are in their third season with the Troops and will be looked upon to be an even bigger part of the offensive equation for Ryan Oulahen’s group this season.
Romani surpassed the 20 goal plateau a year ago finishing with 43 points while Van Steensel had 28 points in 2022-23, 11 of those were goals.
After the period, Justin Ertel spoke to the OHL tonight and said, “Obviously that was the start we were looking for. We were just trying to get our legs back under us and get some pucks on that. We just have to keep that going for the rest of the game.”
Robertson made a huge save about four minutes into the second period. Tai York was wide open in the slot and slapped one at the second year Battalion goaltender. Robertson made the save off his chest while the rebound went right back to York. A second shot was met by Robertson stacking his pads and throwing up the glove to deny the Colts and keep his team ahead 1-0.
The Colts were able to break through at the 8:41 mark of the second period. Roenick Jodoin had the puck behind the Battalion net and slid it out in front to a wide-open Kashawn Aitcheson who beat Robertson glove side for his first of the season to tie the game 1-1. The Toronto born defenseman had three points in 23 games last year in his rookie season.
Van Steensel put the Battalion back in front just a few minutes later. He tried to bury the puck between the goaltender and the far post, but after Colts goaltender Ben West made the block, the puck bounced back to Van Steensel behind the net. Van Steensel grabbed the puck went to the near side and completed the wraparound play for his first goal of the year, and second point of the night, getting North Bay ahead 2-1.
With Ertel in the box for boarding at 5:23, the Colts managed to tie the game again with a power play goal in the third period on a nice tic-tac-toe play. Eduard Sale was above the left side face-off circle and he made a perfect pass to Shamar Moses stationed along the goal line, he fed it right back to the side of the circle to Beau Jelsma who one-timed it past Robertson to knot the game at 2-2. Moses and Sale picked up their first career OHL points on the play while third year forward Jelsma recorded his 59th career goal. He scored 31 last season, 18 of those came after January 1st, giving Jelsma an impressive second half performance.
This was the first time the Battalion were playing the Barrie Colts to open the season since the pandemic shortened year of 2019-2020. The Colts were victorious 3-0 in that game, in North Bay on September 20th 2019, that was also the last time the Battalion had lost a season opener, beating the Peterborough Petes 7-4 on October 7th 2021, and taking down the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4-1 last year on September 30th.
The Battalion will go right back to work on Friday as they host the Colts in their home opener. The Troops will get to lift another banner to the rafters to celebrate their 2022-23 Central Division title. Following the game, the Frontline Broadcast will host the North Bay Mitsubishi After Action Report – a live post-game show featuring player and coaches comments. You can listen to that on your phone through the Spreaker app, or on your desktop through the North Bay Echo Network via this link https://www.northbayecho.ca/podcast/the-frontline/.