Special Teams played a pivotal roll in the Troops 5-4 overtime win over the visiting Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Thursday night.
The Battalion scored on three of their six chances, but it was their work on the Penalty Kill that Head Coach Ryan Oulahen says turned the tide for the home side.
“The penalty kill was huge when it needed to be with a couple of big ones there late in the game to make sure that it didn’t get out of hand.”
And it could’ve slipped away from them. After seeing two separate one-goal leads evaporate during the game, the Troops then had to overcome two one-goal deficits to force overtime.
“Last weekend we were in a situation where we were up late in the contest and had to buckle things down to get a win,” says Oulahen referencing the game on December 3rd against Hamilton in which the Battalion hung on for a 5-2 lead.
“We had to play a little more free tonight and take some chances and I thought we did that at the right times. Our guys stepped up to the plate.”
Brandon Coe (15) scored the game-winning goal in overtime just 1:10 in to send the 1955 fans in attendance home happy.
The Battalion had to force overtime by scoring twice in the third. Liam Arnsby (7) tied the game with a power play goal at 7:41, deflecting a pass from Matvey Petrov to temporarily tie the game at 3-3.
Bryce McConnell-Barker (11) scored at 11:06 on a Greyhounds power play to give them their second lead of the game at 4-3.
Petrov would tie the game for the fourth time in the contest late in the third. At 16:18, he received a pass from the corner from Coe, then slid around the sprawling netminder, Tucker Tynan, to deposit his 17th goal of the season.
Earlier in the game Josh Currie was hooked at 1:26 by Caeden Carlisle inside the Greyhounds zone. Currie then put the Troops ahead with a goal on the ensuing power play with a bullet from the right side circle blistering its way past Tynan at 3:18 which at that point gave the Troops at 2-1 lead on Curries 9th of the season.
The Greyhounds Tanner Dickerson was called for slashing at 6:02 and that allowed Mitchell Russell (14) to open the scoring at 7:28. Matvey Petrov and Nelson assisted on the goal.
The Troops over age forward took the puck down low to the blocker side of the Tynan and attempted a pass out front. However, the puck bounced off a skate and went up and over the shoulder of Tynan to give the Troops a 1-0 lead.
With Currie and Arnsby getting on the board along with regular box score namesakes Russell, Petrov and Coe, Oulahen says that’s what he was looking for when he spoke about depth scoring earlier in the week.
“That’s huge, it's just such a bonus. I thought our fourth line played really well too, I don’t think they had a bad shift,” says Oulahen.
Joe Vrbetic backstopped the Battalion to the win, making 26 saves and improving to 13-2-1-1 on the season.
The Battalion haven’t lost a game in regulation in their last five contests dating back to a 5-2 loss in Peterborough on November 25. They will look to continue that streak when they play the Colts in Barrie on Saturday night.
