One minute and 56 seconds.
That’s all the time the North Bay Battalion needed to erase a two-goal Erie Otter lead in a heroic 3-2 win at Memorial Gardens on Thursday night, becoming the first team this season to beat the country's top team when trailing after two periods.
After boasting a clean sheet performance through two periods, Erie's starting goaltender Devin Williams, the best statistically in the league, left the game with a bizarre injury, paving the way for an offensive explosion by the North Bay boys.
The Troops went on to score three unanswered goals in a rapid fire flurry, with Brett McKenzie netting the game-winner to finish off the string of scoring. Captain Mike Amadio and Kyle Potts were the other goal scorers.
First star Jake Smith stayed stoic through all of the madness, backstopping the Troops with 31 saves, many of which came with the game on the line as the Otters' urgency set in.
“We know they’re a very good team and obviously we were a bit short-staffed today, so it started in goal - we needed a big game from Jake Smith, which we got,” Battalion head coach Stan Butler said after the game. “You’ve got to give our guys credit - they found a way to come back when it was 2-0 and it would’ve been easy for them to shut it right down.
“I think any time you’re down two goals and you come back to win a game, you’re happy,” he added. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, but obviously they’re a very well-coached team - you can see why they’re a good team, they move the puck really well and they have a lot of talented players - so to do it against a team like that is obviously a bigger deal.”
The Battalion were lacking in man-power with Riley Bruce (10-game suspension), Brett Hargrave, Mike Baird, Zach Poirier (various suspensions) and Zach Shankar (injury) all still out of the lineup.
So it was trial by fire for the thin five-man Battalion defensive core, who stepped up against one of the most offensively potent teams in the country.
The Battalion started the game by giving the Otters’ offence too much time and space, with their seamless transitions and speedy passing plays the most obvious advantage.
Their incredible puck-moving prowess was even more evident on their first power play opportunity, where league-leading goal scorer Alex DeBrincat was left a wide-open cage at the end of an impressive tic-tac-toe cross-ice passing play.
“I think, like any time you play one of the top teams, you probably give them a little too much respect,” said Butler. “I think some of our guys, not to take anything away from Erie, gave them way too much respect.”
But limiting the Otters’ lead to just one goal after the first proved paramount.
The guys in green began to hold their own in the second period, containing the encapsulating talent of the Otters admirably.
But that progression was negated by a small slip by defenceman Mark Shoemaker, who jumped at a risky offensive-zone pinch. The Otters pounced on the play and used an out-of-position back check by the Battalion to take the two-goal lead.
A sure Otter win looked to be in the cards as they boasted a 20-0-1-0 record when carrying a lead into the third period before Thursday night’s contest.
But the Troops continued to build momentum into the final frame, which presented itself in a strange, unpredictable opportunity.
After the Battalion dumped the puck behind the Otter net, goaltender Williams retreated to to play the puck but stumbled backwards over his own equipment and crashing hard to the ice.
Williams stayed on the ice in obvious pain as Potts took advantage of a wide open net to pull the Battalion to within a goal. After being tended to by the team trainer, Williams was taken to the dressing room and didn’t return to the bench for the remainder of the night.
Backup Jake Lawr, who boasts significantly less overwhelming statistics than Williams, was immediately exploited by the Battalion and they didn’t falter from there.
Moments later, a disorganized Erie backcheck allowed Amadio to walk in uncontested for an upstairs wrist shot over Lawr’s shoulder on his first shot against.
Then, just 33 seconds later, Brett McKenzie capped off a stunning string of scoring from the slot.
“Hockey games are funny - they can be won or lost within a span of two or three minutes, and today’s game is an example of that,” said Butler.
From there, the lean Battalion defence did a noble job of blocking the shooting and passing lanes to protect the lead and Smith stood his ground confidently against the formidable foe.
“He knows how to win big games,” Butler said of his goaltender. “He’s like a starting pitcher in baseball: if you’ve got a deciding game or a big situation, he’s definitely the guy you want in that position. That’s why he’s the all-time leader in wins for the Battalion.
“He’s just one of those guys that keeps battling,” he added. “They always say he’s too small, but he doesn’t believe what they say and he’s just going to keep going out there and trying to find ways to win and get somebody’s attention.”
The Battalion have now won their last nine games in Memorial Gardens dating all the way back to mid-November.
The Battalion’s 20-14-1-2 record is good enough for third spot in the incredibly tight Central Division, just one point back of the Mississauga Steelheads and four back of the Barrie Colts. The Troops also boast a division-best 8-2-0-0 record in their last 10 games.
The win kicks off a busy weekend for the Troops, who carry their artillery westward to Sudbury to take on the lowly Wolves on Friday night before returning home to host the new-look Ottawa 67s, who traded top players Travis Konecny and Sam Studnicka to the Sarnia Sting earlier this week.
Poirier and Hargrave will be eligible to return to the lineup in Sudbury, while Baird won't be back in action until Sunday afternoon.