A great showing in the third period wasn’t enough as the North Bay Battalion fell 5-4 in overtime to the Barrie Colts 5-4 Sunday at Memorial Gardens.
“I loved our weekend, again,” assessed head coach Ryan Oulahen. “I know we had a tough one in Kitchener on Friday, outside of that, we played arguably three of the top teams outside of London in the league, and we could have won two of them for sure.
“I said to those guys that I know it feels like a loss, but it has to feel like a victory. That point is massive and super crucial right now. We’re going to look at the positives and get geared up for next weekend.”
North Bay was looking to at least keep the two point cushion between them and the Ottawa 67’s who were hosting the Kingston Frontenacs. They did just that with the extra point in overtime as Ottawa fell in overtime themselves. Coming into the game the matchup seemed favourable for North Bay as the Colts are the lone team the Battalion have a winning record against in the Central.
Meanwhile Barrie, who recently clinched the Central Division, ending North Bay’s three year reign, and their first since 2018, were looking to close a five point gap with the Brantford Bulldogs for first in the Eastern Conference.
After a bit of a slow start, the Troops started to gain momentum after a powerplay. While the powerplay didn’t result in a goal, it did result in some better chances for North Bay, which ultimately led to the opening goal. It was Jacob LeBlanc (10) who found the icebreaker as he looked off Ryder Carey on a two-on-one and ripped the shot home over Colts netminder Ben Hrebik’s glove.
That’s how the score would stay through the end of the first, with North Bay up 1-0.
Barrie’s firepower came to play in the second as in just 3:03 of game time, the Colts scored three times to go up 3-1.
Starting off just over midway through the second the North Bay connection struck…but for the Colts. After killing off a full two minutes of five-on-three, the former Battalion teammates in Owen Van Steensel and Dalyn Wakely connected for the equalizer as Van Steensel found Wakely (21) just in front of Troops netminder Mike McIvor for the tip in.
Just over two minutes after the first Barrie goal, the Colts struck again. This time on a giveaway in their defensive end by Zach Wilson, Brad Gardiner picked up the puck and found Jaiden Newton (3) in the slot, who was able to beat McIvor with a quick shot.
Continuing with the quick strikes, the Colts pounced again 51 seconds later. Kashawn Aitcheson (25), who set Barrie’s single season record for goals by a defenceman Saturday, wired the puck past McIvor. Wakely was credited with an assist on the play after he had won the faceoff back to Aitchenson for the point shot.
North Bay struck back late to make the game tighter heading into the third. With Aitcheson in the box for slashing, and only 28 seconds to work it, Andrew LeBlanc (12) tipped a pass by Jacob Therrien past Hrebik to make the score 3-2 heading into the second intermission
After some back and forth action in the third, the Troops finally cracked Hrebik. Ihnat Pazii (8) who has been hot as of late, took a pass from Jacob LeBlanc and proceeded to beat the Colts goaltender to tie it 3-3 with 6:30 remaining.
Strap in, because the game takes a quick turn from there.
With 1:30 left on the clock, Wakely (22) looked to seal it on a puck poked just behind McIvor. However, 50 seconds later, and with 40 seconds on the clock, Jacob Therrien (17) was able to roof it over Hrebik to knot the game at 4-4 heading into overtime.
“It was huge,” stated Oulahen. “Looking at the clock you know there’s not a lot of time, do I call a timeout? That’s going through my head, get the six-on-five right away, trust the big line to go out.
“What a great play by Therrien. Patience and made it happen. That was huge, biggest goal of the year.”
After dominating much of the play, the Battalion couldn’t find a way to win it, and Van Steensel (22) finished the game off with a minute left in overtime to give Barrie the 5-4 victory.
“I’m thinking we have to score in those situations,” chuckled Oulahen. “We’re three-and-a-half minutes in their end, they didn’t get their guys off the ice and eventually they’re going to get the puck.
“The ebbs and flows of overtime can change like that on you. We’ve seen in our building what some of their players have done. A pretty special day for them and we couldn’t match it.”
Depending on how the rest of the season plays out, North Bay and Barrie could meet in the first round of the playoffs. However, a lot has to go right for Barrie, while North Bay likely won’t catch Niagara in seventh. All that to say, this game could have been the last time Anthony Romani, Wakely and Van Steensel, now Colts, appeared on the ice at Memorial Gardens. If that is truly the case, this game has seen a remarkable era of Battalion hockey finally come to a close.
“We’ve made trades before and things have happened where you coach against former players,” Oulahen said on the three. “It’s really hard for me to watch those guys on the other side, I’m not going to lie to you. So much that they have put in to not just us, the team, the community, the list goes on and on.
“They stepped in here after the pandemic when we’re the last place team in the league. They come in, win three straight Central Division championships, they’ve won another this year, I can go on and on about how I feel about them. Those relationships are going to last forever.”
North Bay will look to continue their playoff push Thursday when they welcome the Oshawa Generals to town. Puck drop from the Gardens is at 7 p.m.