Another game, another opportunity to bounce back on home ice for the North Bay Battalion as the Flint Firebirds visited for a 2pm showdown. Both teams are coming off overtime losses. The Battalion being downed 4-3 to the Otters last Thursday the 5th, and the Firebirds being edged out 5-4 by the Sudbury Wolves Saturday night.
On this night though the Battalion would be the victor, picking up the win 4-1 over Flint with an attendance of 2,681.
“I am proud of that performance,” Coach Ryan Oulahen had to say.
“Really a pretty solid outing right through the lineup. Everybody brought their game today.”
The real star of the show was the Battalion special teams. Scoring on 2/4 man advantages that were afforded to them and shut down all five of the Firebirds opportunities. But if you had to point to a star player it would be Ethan Procyszyn with a goal and two assists on the night.
The Battalion game plan was clear from the very initial puck drop. Play what Head Coach Ryan Oulahen often calls “Battalion Hockey.” Heavy on the forecheck, dominate the board battles, play with grit, play with precision.
Four minutes and 56 seconds into the opening period the game plan pays off.
The home team dumped the puck in behind the Firebird’s net and fought for the puck, heavy, but clean. Assistant Captain Ethan Procyszyn would win the puck and kick it out to blue liner Aaron Enright who sent a wrister towards the net, with Jacob Therrien cleaning up the rebound for the 1-0 goal.
“That compete, that extra effort, stripping pucks, that’s what we ask of our players,” mentioned Oulahen.
Minutes later the Troops found themselves with another opportunity that would not be wasted. Reyth Smith would get the puck from Ryder Carey and burn up the right side of the ice with Lirim Amidovski skating in time in a two on one. Amidovski would receive the pass cleanly from Smith and flip the puck over netminder Noah Bender’s glove to extend the Battalion lead to two.
The first period continued to be a class at the school of “hard work pays off” as on North Bay’s second power play of the night the Battalion would find their third goal of the game due to aggressive play in front of the net, with Ethan Procyszyn slapping the puck five-hole after chaos on the Firebird’s doorstep.
When asked, Procyszyn said he just saw the puck and went to the net.
“That’s kind of my sweet spot,” said Procyszyn.
“I just drove the net, saw the puck pop out to me and just threw it in the five-hole.”
Closing out the period would be a heavyweight tilt between Battalion defender Bronson Ride, and Firebirds winger Alex Kostov, with Kostov trying to do anything to reignite Flint before heading to the next period.
To their credit, Flint did start the following period with significantly more vigour.
Only problem for them being North Bay changed nothing.
The Battalion stuck to what worked in the first period and played heavy, only giving up one high danger chance in the first ten minutes of the frame.
But just the first ten minutes.
Eleven minutes in Flint would cut the lead to two, finding space at neutral ice and generating a two on one with Jeremy Martin feeding former Sudbury Wolves forward Evan Konyen the puck. With a slick “no-move” deke the biscuit would slip past McIvor for Konyen’s sixth goal of the year.
The Battalion however would bounce back without delay.
Given another opportunity on the power play the Troops set up quickly. Nearly unobstructed around the Firebirds net Moses to Procyszyn to Van Steensel, tic-tac-toe, and a 4-1 lead for the home team.
By the third period you could tell fatigue was setting in on the visiting squad. Plays became more one dimensional and choppy. Despite this fact the Firebirds were still getting chances on net.
This doesn’t mean the Battalion played any less sound defensively, they simply adjusted where they applied pressure. Instead of so much time in Flint’s zone the Battalion crushed at their own blue line, and played the body heavier in their own end.
But with heavy play there’s always risk of taking a penalty, and in the dying minutes the Troops ended up in a five on three penalty kill. As far as the final score is concerned though, it may as well not have happened as the Battalion close out this game 4-1 and remain 3-0 this season in their alternate “Centurion” jerseys.
The next Battalion home game is Thursday, December 12 when Masen Wray and the Niagara IceDogs visit for a 7 p.m. puck drop.