Story by Kortney Kenney
The North Bay Battalion celebrated New Year's Eve in style by defeating the divisional rival Mississauga Steelheads 8-3 thanks in part to two goals each from Bradley Chenier and Luke Burghardt.
The Battalion (13-18-5) came into this game tied with the Steelheads (14-22-0-1) with 29 points for the 8th and final playoff spot in the OHL’s Eastern Conference.
The first period started off quickly with Mississauga dictating play early, along with the physical play. The play would even out however before North Bay’s Brad Chenier scored his 9th to give the Battalion a 1-0 lead midway through the frame.
Luke Burghardt would then press the attack and score his 14th of the season 30 seconds later to put North Bay up 2-0.
Just after the Burghardt goal, goaltender Christian Propp was run into by his own player and stayed down for a couple of minutes, remind fans of his infamous Battalion debut against Windsor. Propp would get up and shake it off, and looked stellar on a Mississauga powerplay moments later, stopping everything that came his way.
Things would fall apart early in the second for the Steelheads, as Luke Burghardt and Brad Chenier would each get their second goals of the game seconds apart to start the period.
Mississauga goaltender Emanuel Vella was pulled after the 4th goal against for Jacob Ingham. Things did not get easier as the first shot for Ingham was a Burghardt penalty shot, who was looking for the hat trick but was denied.
Andy Baker would set up Luke Moncada for his 5th of the season, North Bay would then lead 5-0 after 3 goals in 3 minutes of play in the 2nd. The dominance would continue as Adam McMaster would pot his 3rd of the season.
The 6th Battalion goal and 4th of the period awakened Mississauga somewhat as they scored the next two coming from Ryan McLeod and Cole Schwindt.
All told, there were 8 goals scored in the second period and the score was North Bay 7 Mississauga 2.
The third wrapped up with Andy Baker’s 7th goal and Owen Tippet scoring his 10th for Mississauga.
"The win was huge and to start off the New Year right with 2 wins over a divisional rival will go a long way," stated two-goal scorer Burghardt post game.
When speaking to media after the game, head coach Stan Butler offered this up “I’m happy for our guys, they capitalized on their opportunities. We didn’t have many chances at first, but when we did get them, we put the puck in the net. It’s great when you get balance from everyone. It makes it easier when you get scoring from everyone.”
The Battalion are next in action tomorrow as they hit the road to take on the Oshawa Generals.