Saturday night the North Bay Battalion visited the Owen Sound Attack at the Bayshore Community Centre for the two squad’s final matchup of the season. The home team certainly lived up to their name as the Attack would walk away with a 4-1 win over the visiting Troops.
Good leaders lead by example and Attack captain Landen Hookey certainly did just that. Leading the way with two goals and an assist he was all over the offensive play for the home team, helping them come within two points of the Soo Greyhounds.
Both teams are scratching and clawing for a playoff spot in their respective conferences. North Bay has been in a neck-and-neck race for eighth with the Ottawa 67’s in the east, while Owen Sound sits just a few points behind a struggling Sault St. Marie Greyhounds squad for the final spot in the west.
The similarities between these two teams don’t stop there. The Battalion in their last ten had a record of 3-6-1-0 while the Attack went 4-5-1-0, and before the result tonight they had the same home record as each other at 10-12-3-0.
This tilt was game 2 of a back-to-back, as each team had a one goal loss Friday night, the only difference being the Troops picked up a point in overtime against the Guelph Storm.
Period one was a competitive, chippy and frankly uneventful affair with each team being afforded a shot at the man advantage. The first being given to the Attack due to an undisciplined tripping penalty from forward Jacob Therrien, tied at 15th in the league for penalties in minutes. The stalwart defence of the Battalion turned away each and every attempt by the Attack. Conversely the Battalion were unable to convert on their attempt late in the frame as Easton Mikus took a tripping infraction himself.
Owen Sound, led by former Battalion assistant coach Scott Wray, would not miss on their next man advantage.
Two and a half minutes into the second period of play Battalion defender Zach Wilson would be called for a crosschecking infraction. Just 38 seconds later Landen Hookey would get the feed to Pierce Mbuyi, then over to Brayden Rogers (6) who sent a sharp wrist shot through traffic and past Battalion netminder McIvor for the 1-0 goal.
The Attack were moving at just a 15.4 per cent pace on the power play, the fourth worst power play in the league, while the Battalion were operating at 78.8% on the penalty kill, eighth best overall.
The remainder of the period remained scoreless despite the best efforts of each team, especially the Attack as they were able to fling 14 shots on the net of the visiting Battalion. The Troops were mostly kept to a few odd chances on rushing plays with only 6 shots making their way to Carter George in the period.
The Attack maintained their knack for scoring early in the period due to a drive from Pierce Mbuyi and a finish by Landen Hookey (22). Just 36 seconds in Mbuyi rushed through the Battalion zone and went for a wrap-around attempt that was turned aside, but Hookey was there on the doorstep and was able to whack away at the puck and send it past McIvor to increase the Owen Sound lead to two.
North Bay was gifted a trio of power plays one after the other, including a brief minute of overlap for a 5 on 3 advantage.
Cole Zurawski was sent off for a trip, followed by Jake Crawford for delay of game. Neither of those would be fortuitous for the Troops, but as the saying goes “third time’s the charm,” as the Troops would score up a man due to a high stick from Harry Nansi.
The visitors would get Carter George moving post-to-post as Andrew LeBlanc got the biscuit to captain Ethan Procyszyn who shot the puck low on George. The rebound would go all the way to an uncontested Jacob Therrien (8) to bring the scoreline to 2-1.
Owen Sound would apparently take umbrage with their two-goal lead being broken as just 12 seconds later, on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, Kindree to Varosyan to Easton Mikus (2), and the lead would extend to 3-1 for the home team.
In the dying seconds of the game Carter George would pick up his third assist of the season on the Landen Hookey empty net goal. Final score 4-1 Owen Sound.
Final shots on goal 30-24 for the Attack.
Battalion goatlender Mike McIvor, who put in an solid performance, was named the game's third star as he turned away 27 shots to try and keep his team in reach.
North Bay's Masen Wray, who was traded to Owen Sound earlier this season from the Brantford Bulldogs, did not play as he is out indefinitely with an upper body injury.
The Attack aren’t done playing hockey this weekend as they will have their third game in as many days tomorrow at 2 p.m. against the Kingston Frontenacs.
Meanwhile the Battalion will have to wait for their next shot at 2 points as they take on the Brampton Steelheads on Thursday at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens for a 7 p.m. puck drop.