For the most part this season, the Battalion have either lived or died by their second period. On Thursday night at home, they allowed five goals to the visiting Ice Dogs in the middle frame – getting into a hole they couldn’t climb out of. But down 1-0 to the Generals on Friday night in Oshawa, the Battalion put up three goals themselves in the second period, on route to a 3-1 victory over the defending Eastern Conference champions.
It's an uplifting win for a North Bay (13-12-3-0) team that was not only looking to take out some frustrations from the night before, but also looking for some revenge from last season.
It was the first visit to the Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa (18-10-2-1) since Game 7 of last years OHL Eastern Conference final in which the Generals won 6-1 on May 6, 2024. Third year forward Ethan Procyszyn was asked about the return trip during the first period intermission on the OHL Tonight broadcast.
“It's sort of a redemption game for us. We talked about it before the game, this is where our season ended last year, so this is a big game for us,” he said.
And after the Generals jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, Procyszyn reflected on the game and the season as a whole.
Reflecting on the season as a whole, Procyszyn says, “We’re dealing with a lot of injuries and we have a lot of first and second year guys stepping into the lineup. It’s huge for their confidence to get that experience and it will pay off for us down the line, and we’re hoping to have a strong final 40 minutes,” he says.
The next 40-minutes certainly were strong for the visiting side as the Battalion came out firing in the opening minutes of the second period. They got a couple of chances in close, making Generals goaltender Jacob Oster (12-9-1-1) move between the pipes, with shots coming from Wyatt Kennedy and Briir Long within the first three minutes.
The Battalion kept on the pressure from there and were counter attacking well and it finally paid off almost halfway through the middle frame. The third line of Lirim Amidovski, Ryder Carey and Reth Smith found space in the Oshawa zone. Smith, brought the puck into the slot and made a nice move to get Oster to open up just enough, allowing Smith to slide the puck five-hole. Oster quickly closed the pads, but the puck trickled through and carried over line – with what looked like a little assistance by Carey. Initially, the first year forward looked like he might’ve tapped the puck just before it crossed the line and the official scorers gave him the goal, but shortly after it was changed to (rightfully) Smith, getting his fourth goal of the season to tie the game 1-1 at 9:37.
Amidovski gave the Troops their first lead of the night just a few minutes later when he broke down the right wing, entered the face-off circle and sniped a shot under the glove side arm of Oster that snuck in between the goaltender and the post. The ninth goal of the season for Amidovski at 13:05 put the Troops up 2-1.
It became 3-1 three minutes later when Jacob Therrien got onto the scoresheet, in the assist column. He made a fantastic, individual effort play to carry the puck from the top of the zone on the near side, getting around a couple of players to find himself underneath the far side circle, before dishing off a pass that slid across the top of the crease and banked off Owen Van Steensel’s skate. The overage forward got the credit for his 12th goal of the season at 16:10 and the Troops carried the two-goal advantage into the third period.
The Battalion are now 8-0-0-0 when they have a lead after the second period, and 4-1-2-0 when they are tied and they shut down the Generals in the third.
The Battalion had a golden opportunity to make it 4-1 in the early part of the third period when they broke out of their zone on a two-on-none, with Nolan Laird carrying the puck down the middle, with Stepan Chukharev on his right. Laird slid over to the left and then back hand passed the puck, intending to get it over to Chukharev, but Zackary Sandhu came charging up the ice on the back check and interrupted the pass, although he redirected off his stick and toward the Oshawa net, forcing Oster to have to make somewhat of a save.
The Generals generated opportunities of their own in the third, but Troops goaltender Mike McIvor made some big stops in the final 20 minutes, turning aside 19 shots in total on the evening and earning his 10th win of the season, to improve to 10-3-2-0 on the year. The only puck that got by him came less than a minute into the game when the Generals got a favourable hometown bounce. Colby Barlow dumped the puck in toward the North Bay net, it bounced back right back out in front of the Battalion net and onto the stick of Owen Griffin who got a shot on McIvor. McIvor made the save, but that rebound went right toward Harrison Franssen. Franssen sent it back toward the net before McIvor could recover from the first save, and in the process, he potted the puck for this first career OHL goal.
Therrien was looking to tie the game a few minutes later when he picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and fought off two defenders to get a partial breakaway, he slammed on the breaks in the slot, dropped a pass back to a trailing Ethan Procyszyn, who snapped a quick shot off, but Oster made the save.
Therrien was the centre of attention again near the 7-minute mark when he delivered a huge, clean hit in the offensive zone which did not sit well with Sandhu who rushed in to drop the gloves with Therrien. The two had a spirited tilt and ended with the referees breaking it up. The Battalion received a 2-minute power play after that instance but couldn’t tie the game.
The Battalion were close to tying the game late in the period while shorthanded. At 16:32, Nick Wellenreiter got a breakaway by blocking a shot from just inside his own blue line and following the redirected puck into the neutral zone and carried it down the ice. He broke in on Oster, then pulled the puck to the left side with Oster completely flat and outstretched, but Wellenreiter’s shot hit the near side post and bounced back out to the middle of the zone, keeping the score 1-0 in favour of the Generals, but the Troops managed to kill the penalty and enter the first intermission down by just a goal.
The Battalion, sitting in eight in the Eastern Conference may have caught the conference leading Generals at just the right time as it’s been a week of up and downs for the organization.
Last Friday, they defeated the Knights in London 5-3, snapping the Knights 19-game winning streak. That was followed up with a loss to the Saginaw Spirit and come Monday, they announced they had fired head coach Steve O'Rourke and named assistant coach Brad Malone as interim coach. The Generals also saw two of their marquee players get invited to attend Team Canada’s World Junior selection camp and those players, Beckett Sennecke (Anaheim Ducks, 2024 Round 1, #3) and Callum Ritchie (Colorado Avalanche, 2023 Round 1, #27) were not in the lineup against the Battalion.
But on Thursday, the Generals lost to the last ranked Petes, and before puck drop on Friday, it was announced that Sennecke was cut from the Team Canada roster.
On the other side, the Battalion now have points in four of their last five played, and will look to keep this run going when they host the 9th place Ottawa 67’s at Memorial Gardens at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
