North Bay Battalion Coach Ryan Oulahen realizes his club cannot to be spectators when the puck drops for a 7 p.m. Thursday visit by the high-powered London Knights.
“The biggest thing is, you fear when you play a top team like this, and it’s probably what caught us when we played in London, is you don’t want to come out and watch them,” Oulahen said Wednesday.
“We want to maybe play a little free, just play on our toes, play our aggressive style that we’ve been playing, and then you give yourselves the best chance. You’re not going to do well if you just want to watch them play. The teams that just go out and play them hard are usually right there with them, and we’ve got to find a way to do that.”
The Battalion has a won-lost-extended record of 16-22-3 for 35 points, fifth in the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division. London, which lost 5-2 Tuesday night to the host Kitchener Rangers to end a five-game winning streak, is 34-7-1 for 69 points atop the Midwest Division and Western Conference.
North Bay, which lost 6-2 at London on Nov. 8, won its most recent home game, 2-0 last Thursday night over the Barrie Colts, before a pair of road losses, 3-1 Saturday night to the Niagara IceDogs and 2-1 Sunday to the Brantford Bulldogs.
Apart from an empty-netter at Niagara, the Battalion gave up four goals in the three games and came away with one win.
Oulahen feels the Troops have to keep up their work on offence, which saw them put 44 shots on IceDogs goaltender Owen Flores, and results will come.
“With how we played this weekend, you’d almost expect three wins. That’s how well we’ve played. I know there’s no moral victories. The guys need to get some results to continue the belief here, but I think there are ways that, if we stick with it, the puck is going to go into the back of the net.”
The Battalion, with two games in hand, sits one point behind the East Division’s Ottawa 67’s for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth.
“I think it’s a really good situation that we’re in, that we’re in a competitive hunt for the playoffs,” noted Oulahen, whose squad also hosts the Sudbury Wolves on Sunday.
“It’s going to go right down to the wire. Everybody’s excited about that. I feel like it’s very similar to chasing a division (title). I just sense that same type of pressure, which I think is a really healthy thing.”
Oulahen said that Jacob Therrien, who has missed eight games since suffering an upper-body injury in a 3-1 home-ice loss Dec. 29 to Barrie, may return against London.
“He’s very close. He’s had a good week so far. If things go really well, then we’re optimistic that we see him tomorrow night.”
Greyhounds-Battalion game rescheduled
The North Bay Battalion’s postponed visit to the Soo Greyhounds has been rescheduled for 7:07 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, the Ontario Hockey League announced Wednesday.
The game originally was scheduled for Nov. 29 as the first of a back-to-back set, but the City of Sault Ste. Marie closed GFL Memorial Gardens because of a snowstorm.
The second game was played as scheduled on Nov. 30 and resulted in a 3-2 Battalion win.
The rescheduling will extend a three-game western swing by the Battalion to face the Saginaw Spirit, Flint Firebirds and, lastly, the Sarnia Sting, with that game on Sunday, Feb. 23. The Troops then will head to Sault Ste. Marie instead of directly back to North Bay.
The new Soo visit will result in the Troops playing six straight road games, matching a season-high set from Sept. 28 to Oct. 12.
