The North Bay Battalion visited the Brantford Civic Centre to take on the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon, looking to bounce back after a close loss to the now eastern conference leading Niagara IceDogs. North Bay entered this match just a point behind the Ottawa ‘67s for the final playoff spot in the east.
The Bulldogs have had an eventful few weeks. They began this game with a season best five wins in a row, most recently claiming a convincing 5-3 victory over the Oshawa Generals. Not to mention, the Bulldogs are now under new ownership. As confirmed on January 13th the team was purchased by a group led by Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman, from now Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer.
To top off the excitement the Bulldogs and the City of Brantford confirmed a 15-year lease agreement, guaranteeing OHL hockey in the city for years to come.
That excitement would keep on rolling as the Bulldogs would pull off a tight 2-1 victory over the visiting Troops.
Leading the way was netminder Ryerson Leenders stopping 29 out of 30 shots on his net.
“I faced 30 shots but it didn’t feel like 30 shots, the forwards and the defence made it easy on me,” Leenders said on OHL Tonight.
The puck dropped and The Battalion kept up the same energy that brought them multiple chances for success the night before. Heavily forechecking and not letting off the gas in the offensive zone, opting to get as many shots on net as possible.
With that heavy presence, overage forward Andrew LeBlanc was able to draw a penalty, and the Battalion would waste no time getting a goal on the man advantage.
Setting up quickly in the Bulldogs zone Wellenreiter found a wide-open Shamar Moses just below the blue line and fired into the traffic in front of the net. Captain Ethan Procyszyn tipped the puck past Ryerson Leenders to get the 1-0 goal, and his 25th goal of the season.
Only 58 seconds later Brantford responded.
Tomáš Hamara dangled around two North Bay defenders in the slot, and fired a shot through traffic that went "bar down" to tie the game at one.
North Bay continued to push in the second frame, hammering the Brantford defenders, and winning the majority of board battles on both ends of the ice.
Even with such positive play, it was the Bulldogs that struck again.
Owen Protz slung a stretch pass from his own zone to Joshua Avery at the Troops blue line. With a quick flick Avery got the puck to Chicago Blackhawks prospect Nick Lardis, who had as much time and space as he wanted to pick the top glove corner and put the home team on top 2-1 and net him his 37th goal of the season.
The final frame was all Bulldogs.
Brantford effectively shut down chances off the rush for North Bay and did a much better job at not getting hemmed in their own zone. The Bulldogs also won more battles in the Battalion end, keeping up pressure and wearing down the Troops while they were defending.
So much of the play was in the North Bay end they only had one shot on goal in the first 10 minutes of the final period.
With just over a minute remaining and the goalie pulled the Battalion put forth one final push. Despite many shots towards the net the Bulldogs would sacrifice the body in front of said shots and would effectively ice the puck to kill time to the final buzzer.
Final score 2-1 Bulldogs.
Final shots on goal 30-15 in favour of the Battalion.
The next Battalion game is Thursday January 26th at North Bay Memorial Gardens where they will take on Easton Cowan and the league leading London Knights.
Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
