A goal in the third period and a shootout goal from Nick Wellenreiter helped lead the North Bay Battalion to a 4-3 shootout win over the Niagara IceDogs during a 1 p.m. Sunday showdown in front of 2,803 fans at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
“I think this can be a bit of a confidence booster. One of the top teams in our division for sure, and they’ve been rolling. Was watching them play last night, a team that scores a lot of goals,” noted Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen.
“I kind of thought that if we kept them to that number of goals, we would have a good chance.”
The OHL’s eastern conference is in an odd logjam. The first through fifth position were separated by only 5 points, fourth being held by the IceDogs and fifth by the Bulldogs. The bottom of the east is a battle for at minimum, the eighth and final playoff spot.
The Ottawa ‘67s at the time of writing now hold the eighth position with 40 points, only one point ahead of the ninth place Battalion (39), and Peterborough (33) after last nights 3-2 shootout win over Oshawa is now only 7 points from tying Ottawa.
When asked about the team’s mentality when it comes to the playoff race Oulahen mentioned “I think the best message is to keep chipping away. We’ve got a lot of hockey here in the next few weeks and we’re going to have to keep climbing up.”
The Battalion showed up to the first period with a fire lit under them. Controlling the play for the majority of 20 minutes. Aggressive on the forecheck, and backchecking effectively. On multiple occasions efficient and clean zone entries by the likes of Andrew LeBlanc and Shamar Moses led to high danger chances that found rookie Niagara netminder Matthew Humphries in his first OHL game, but not the back of his net.
The IceDogs looked a step behind, and understandably so considering this is game 2 of a back-to-back. The first game being a brawl with the Barrie Colts Saturday night where the IceDogs lost 7-6 in overtime.
Niagara is also without captain Kevin He in game 3 of a 3-game suspension that was doled out for a hit during a game with the Erie Otters.
North Bay continued with the pressure as puck dropped on period 2. The Troops peppered pucks towards Humphries who made save after save including a desperation diving snag with the glove that would be considered grand theft across every province and territory.
Niagara’s wall would eventually crack on shot 20 of the game at from Kent Greer (4) as a rebound would find him unattended in the slot, firing the first goal of the game home. 1-0 Battalion.
Minutes later the IceDogs would answer.
At 9:26 into the second period Sean Doherty (11) would find space cutting in on Battalion territory uncontested and unassisted was able to shove in a shot five-hole to tie things up at one.
Niagara would use that momentum to keep on the pressure.
Andrei Loshko was able to dish the puck to former Powassan Voodoo Mike Levin. Levin sent the puck to the slot finding Jack Brauti (7) who sent a missile into the back of the Battalion net for the go-ahead-goal, 2-1 IceDogs.
The third period continued much as the second ended, with Niagara keeping up the pressure and finding opportunity in front of the North Bay net as Ryan Roobroeck (34) smacked away at a spinning puck to extend the visiting team’s lead to 3-1.
Despite the string of goals from Niagara, the Battalion refused to quit.
With just over 10 minutes remaining the Troops swarmed the IceDogs net, and it would be Nick Wellenreiter (7) finding space between Humphries pad and the post to bring the game within 1, and the score 3-2.
Two minutes later the game would be tied.
Adrian Manzo hit Ihnat Pazii with a pass low in the Niagara zone, then quickly slid the puck in front of the net to Lirim Amidovski (11) who tapped in the 3-3 marker.
The remaining minutes of the third period as well as extra time would not solve this bout.
This game would require a shootout.
Nick Wellenreiter would be the only goal scorer in the shootout while Mike McIvor would stop all 3 attempts by Niagara, giving the Battalion their first win of the season against the IceDogs, 4-3.
“I love those high-pressure moments like the shootout, going one on one with guys, I love it.” McIvor emphatically stated.
The Battalion will take on their next opponent, the Soo Greyhounds at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens on Thursday February 6th at 7 p.m.