Mike McIvor shined with a 24 save effort, but it wasn’t enough as the North Bay Battalion fell 2-1 to the Eastern Conference leading Brantford Bulldogs Thursday night.
It was also a potential playoff preview with the Battalion currently occupying the eighth spot in the East, and Brantford in first.
“I loved our game tonight,” stated head coach Ryan Oulahen. “I wish I could be standing here after a big win for sure, but loved our battle, our compete. A lot of things that we want to do, we accomplished here tonight.
“We have a broken stick on their first goal, and the second one, we make a little bit of an error and it’s probably our only error of the game and it’s 2-1 and the wrong guy got the puck on his stick late in the game. Unfortunate, but I really think we’re playing the right way right now and we have to continue it.”
Perhaps a harbinger of things to come, the previous three meetings between Brantford and North Bay were decided by one goal. The Troops won 3-2 on October 18 in Brantford, while the Bulldogs won the next two, 2-1 on January 19 in Brantford and 3-2 on January 30 in North Bay.
“We can look at the chances we developed,” Oulahen expressed. “We have to find ways to put teams away. I thought we had them on the ropes in the second, where we had some good odd man rushes, we had some opportunities, and their goalie gets in the way or we couldn’t get a stick on it, and those are times that maybe a veteran team finds a way to bury one.
“I like a lot of things we’re doing and we have to stay the course and stay positive.”
Despite some powerplay opportunities for both sides, and some other chances, the game remained scoreless almost halfway through. At 10:30 in the second, the Troops broke the ice on a highlight reel goal by Ihnat Pazii (7). Breaking out of his own zone, Pazii bounced off a check at the Bulldogs blue line, maintained possession of the puck and roofed it over netminder Ryerson Leenders for the 1-0 lead.
Almost five minutes into the third, the Bulldogs drew even. Carrying the puck into Battalion territory was Marek Vanacker (21), who cut to just above the hash marks and beat McIvor over the glove on a perfectly placed shot.
With just over nine minutes left in the third, Nick Lardis (71) struck. Picking up the rebound, Lardis wristed the puck over McIvor to give Brantford a 2-1 lead.
With the goal, Lardis has moved past Doug Gilmour (70) and tied Eric Lindros from the 1990-91 OHL season for sixth on the all-time list for most goals in a single season. Next up is John Tavares in fifth with 72. Ernie Godden holds the all-time record at 87.
While the Battalion had some chances with the goalie pulled late in the game, the score remained 2-1 Bulldogs.
As mentioned, McIvor finished with 24 saves, while Leenders stopped 33 in the victory.
“It was a game where both goalies played really well,” said Oulahen. “Mikey made some real good saves. He was solid, sound, got whistles when we needed to, and we come to expect that every night from him.”
North Bay is back in action Friday night when they head south to take on the Kitchener Rangers at the historic Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, or the “Aud.”
“Refresh up here, we’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks,” Oulahen stated. “I think the guys are used to a good night sleep here tonight, we have a team meal at the rink, jump on the bus, and have fun at the Aud tomorrow night.”
Puck drop is at 7 p.m.