The North Bay Battalion, returning from a season-high six straight road games, is back on home ice at 7 p.m. Thursday to face the Brampton Steelheads.
It’s the first home date since Feb. 13, when the Battalion posted a 4-2 Ontario Hockey League victory over the same Steelheads to start a stretch of five wins in seven starts.
North Bay has a won-lost-extended record of 23-29-4 for 50 points, fifth in the Central Division and eighth in the Eastern Conference, four points ahead of the East Division’s Ottawa 67’s with a game in hand.
The Troops complete weekend play by visiting Ottawa on Friday night and hosting the Saginaw Spirit on Sunday.
The Troops went 4-2-0 in the road run, which ended Tuesday night in a 6-3 loss to the Soo Greyhounds, a game that was rescheduled after having been snowed out on Nov. 29.
Brampton is 27-20-9 for 63 points, second in the Central and fifth in the conference.
“They’re a talented group,” Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday of the Steelheads.
“They’ve had guys away at World Juniors, injuries, suspensions, all that kind of stuff, throughout the year.
“I think in their last eight or nine games they’re as hot as anybody in the entire league and beating all the top teams, so we’re going to have to play our best hockey.”
Brampton, 4-0-1 since its last visit to Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens, is 7-1-1 in its last nine games.
Battalion shorthanded goal woes
North Bay’s best hockey wouldn’t include giving up two shorthanded goals, as the team did at Sault Ste. Marie, the first to Brady Martin and the second to Marco Mignosa, who leads the OHL with eight such scores. Soo boasts a league-high 17 shorthanded goals.
“We got dinged last night twice, one being lackadaisical and the other being kind of trying to make something out of nothing,” noted Oulahen. “We’ve got to be smart in those areas, especially down the stretch run here. You can’t give up those ones, for sure.”
Gallivan inspires
The game featured the OHL debut of Declan Gallivan, a seventh-round pick in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection from the Soo Jr. Greyhounds U18s. He played one preseason game in 2023 before joining the junior A Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, with whom he scored four goals and earned 32 assists for 36 points in 39 games in 2023-24.
He was expected to contend for a spot on the Battalion blue line last September, but an illness sidelined him and has limited him to three games and one assist this season with the Thunderbirds.
After Brayden Turley suffered a concussion in a dressing-room mishap after a 5-1 win Sunday over the Sarnia Sting, he went home to Milton, Ont., opening a spot for Gallivan to play with the Troops in his home town.
“The road that’s been traveled for Declan, the fact that he was able to play for us last night, is nothing short of remarkable, to be honest,” said Oulahen.
“You don’t realize the chemistry or the relationship he’s built with a lot of our players, whether it’s through minicamps or being with us through the playoffs last year. The group really kind of galvanised around him.”
Rest a weapon?
With six games coming in the next 11 days heading into the home stretch. Oulahen says he puts a very high value on rest.
"Rest is a weapon, I think you guys have heard me say that before," said Oulahen.
"Rest is absolutely a weapon at this point in time. Sleep is huge, nutrition, and just all the fluids getting in, making sure you recover and feeling good, because you don't want any sickness or any of those things jumping in, so for sure, rest is a weapon and we're going to use that."
Trout leaders
Porter Martone paces Brampton scorers with 29 goals and a team-leading 58 assists for 87 points in 47 games, while Luke Misa has 32 goals and 45 assists for 77 points in 56 games. Carson Rehkopf has a team-high 37 goals and 38 assists for 75 points in 47 games, and Finn Harding has produced seven goals and 47 assists for 54 points in 56 outings.
A bucket pass on Scotiabank Hockey Fights Cancer Night will see all proceeds going to the Canadian Cancer Society.