There are moments you can point to throughout the season where you can see a team starting to turn a corner and begin projecting upwards. Friday night was one of those games for the North Bay Battalion (22-28-4-0) in their 4-1 victory over the Flint Firebrids (22-27-2-3). Some of the things you might look for are; how does a team respond after a tough loss? Who is contributing consistently? Can the team overcome some adversity?
If you put together a list, the Battalion checked off all the boxes in their final trip across the border this season.
A bounce back win: check.
The Troops got down early on Thursday in Saginaw and after the first 20 minutes they trailed 5-0. But they responded with a positive final 40 minutes and it carried over to Friday night.
Reliable Goaltending: check.
Mike McIvor (16-14-2-0) had a fantastic night in net, coming within a single blemish of recording his fourth career shutout. He stopped 18 shots in the first two periods, and made another 13 in the third for a 31 save performance, one night after making 22 stops in relief duty in Saginaw.
Depth scoring: check.
The defense and the third line contributed 75% of the goals scored on the evening, with Bronson Ride, Ihnat Pazii, and Nick Wellenreiter all finding the back of the net.
Not allowing the let downs within the game to derail your hard work: check.
The Troops led 2-0 going into the third, but allowed an early goal to let the Firebirds get to within one. That’s as close as they would get as North Bay settled in and clamped down, not allowing the Firebirds to inch any closer.
This was probably one of the biggest signs of North Bay starting to get into a groove during the stretch drive of this season as they have now won four of their last five games, and have picked up points in all but three games this month.
In their last six road games, the Battalion are 3-2-1 but in four of those games they have either had the lead or have been tied going into the third. In Guelph, they allowed the Storm to come back and win the game in overtime. In Barrie they were tied, got the game to overtime and came away with an OT victory themselves. In Ottawa, they led 1-0, and both teams scored twice in the third for a 3-2 North Bay regulation time win.
Bringing us to Saturday evenings game against Flint. When the Firebirds scored there must have been some fans saying, ‘here we go again.’ But there was no repeat of the Troops failing to close out a contest. In fact, despite the early goal from the Firebirds, North Bay looked to be in complete control during those final 20 minutes, and managed an empty net goal to close things out.
It is an important win for the Troops as it helps them maintain their two-point advantage over Ottawa, who took down the Niagara IceDogs 6-2 in the nation's capital. The fight for the final spot in the Eastern Conference still has North Bay in eighth but now with 48 points (seven back of seventh place Sudbury), and Ottawa still in ninth place with 46 points. North Bay also has two games still in hand.
The game started with a combined five power plays in the opening 20 minutes, but no goals were allowed on those opportunities with North Bay going 0 for 3, including a four-minute double minor that was assessed to Josh Colosimo for high sticking at 2:23. North Bay couldn’t capitalize, and ended up taking a penalty themselves within those four minutes, negating the majority of that man advantage.
The last time Flint and North Bay met was on December 8, in North Bay and the Troops skated away with a 4-1 win. Noah Bender started that game in between the pipes for the Firebirds, and he’s appeared in just five games since then as Flint have been riding Edmonton Oilers sixth round draft pick Nathan Day (2023, #184 overall). Day (20-20-2-3) has played more games than any other goaltender in the OHL this season, with Friday nights affair against North Bay being his 49th, two more than Andrew Oke of the Saginaw Spirit, whom the Battalion saw in Thursday night's 5-1 loss.
Day was eighth in the league with a 3.02 Goals Against Average going into the contest against the Battalion. In his four-year OHL career, he’s faced North Bay twice with a 1-1-0-0 record, allowing nine goals against.
The Battalion countered with McIvor, who was also in net for North Bay when the two teams met in December and he made 21 saves on 22 shots in the win. McIvor entered the game with a 2.88 Goals Against Average, which ranks eighth in the league. In 35 games, he’s allowed just 94 goals, the sixth best number in that category among all qualified goaltenders and his .906 save percentage is tied for fifth.
The Battalion put the first marker on the board in the second period on a three-on-one play that was finished by Jacob Therrien, whose point streak now extends to six straight games (5-2-7 over his last eight played). Therrien scored the lone goal for North Bay in their 5-1 loss on Thursday.
The play was one the coaches love to see and one they preach about all the time, going hard to the puck and winning those 50/50 battles in the neutral zone. Flint’s Urban Podrekar had control of the puck inside the centre ice face-off circle but hesitated and that’s where Ethan Procyszyn pounced. He poked the puck away from Podrekar, followed it to the boards and slapped it up to the Flint blue line for Andrew LeBlanc to take control. The Battalion over age forward skated towards the bottom of the right-side circle before dishing off a perfect pass to the tape of Therrien’s stick across the slot. Therrien then redirected the puck past the Flint goaltender for a 1-0 North Bay lead at 5:36.
The Battalion went ahead 2-0 on a very similar play at 11:16. The Firebirds were putting the pressure on the Troops inside their own zone, but after the Battalion managed to clear the puck, they countered on a quick rush that developed into a three-on-two. This time it was Ride (4) carrying it down the right side in enemy territory. He had two options in front of the net and from the goal line he slapped a quick wrist shot that somehow went off the back off the goaltender and ended up in the net.
McIvor made a big stop with just under six minutes left to play in the second. At the end of a North Bay power play, the Troops turned the puck over at their own blue line, leading to a two-on-one for the Firebirds. Hayden Reid took the shot from in close and McIvor had to make a quick glove save to keep the clean sheet intact heading into the third.
The Firebirds snapped the shutout bid early in the third period. Matthew Wang (15) got some clearance deep in the Battalion zone and punched a little chip shot through the five-hole of McIvor to bring the home side to within a goal, making it 2-1 at 3:10.
The Battalion regained their two-goal lead at 10:43 when Pazii (3) sniped in a shot from the slot on the North Bay power play at 10:43. Wellenreiter took the puck from the top of the zone, skated down below the goal line on the ride side, then fired the pass out in front to Pazii for the setup and the 3-1 North Bay lead.
Wellenreiter got back on the score sheet when he added his eighth goal of the season at 19:05 into the empty net to round out the scoring. The Battalion were 1 for 6 on the power play and 2 for 2 on the penalty kill. Flint outshot North Bay 32-23 in front of 2723 fans at the Dort Financial Centre. The Battalion will return from their trip across the border and rest on Saturday, before their Sunday afternoon tilt against the Sting in Sarnia.