Heartbreak in Brampton; de Haan's OT winner sinks Battalion

The Battalion salute Brampton fans for the last time. The Troops fell 1-0 in overtime in game 5 to the Sudbury Wolves. Photo by Clint Thomas.

BRAMPTON, ON - Evan de Haan scored in overtime as the Sudbury Wolves eliminated the Brampton Battalion 1-0, winning the series 4-1, and put the lights out at the Powerade Centre for the Brampton franchise which will be moving to North Bay this spring.

de Haan put home a rebound off a shot by Michael Kantor at 6:23 of overtime to send the Wolves into the OHL Eastern Conference semi-finals.

After the goal, a handful of Battalion players fell to their hands and knees in dismay in the Battalion crease; realizing it was their last game ever at the Powerade Centre and their season just came to a disappointing end.

"Heartbroken I guess today, but overall its been an awesome time," a teary eyed fifth year Battalion blueliner Cameron Wind told Rogers TV's Laura Barney.

"I was put under wing of guys Cody Hodgson and Matt Duchene, thanks for everything through the highs and lows, its been a good run."

Former North Bay native Clint Thomas was in attendance at Friday's game. The current executive assistant for Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli makes his home in Vaughan, but he was the News Director at CKAT in North Bay in 2002 when the Centennials played their final game at Memorial Gardens.

"There was this stunned silence and I don't think the Battlion fans knew what to do," said Thomas.

"I never got the sense of despair in the stands like when the Centennials left North Bay. I wasn't sure how I would feel. Obviously there's some empathy to the die hard fans of the Battalion because we went through that.

"I'm sure there were some emotional fans with the way the game ended in sudden death. The crowd was really into it when they were pouring it in the final 3 minutes and overtime. The Battlion fans were pretty loud but when the goal went in was stunned silence and all you could hear was Sudbury fans."

The game had a real elimination feel to it, much like a game-7 as both teams played a very tight checking style and both sides offensive chances were limited throughout regulation.

Both teams had goals reviewed as Battalion netminder Jake Smith grabbed a puck sliding towards the line in the second period while in overtime the Battalion had a goal reviewed.

Only moments before the series winner, Barclay Goodrow was robbed by the glove hand of the red-hot Franky Palazzese who made 35 saves for the shutout.

The Sudbury netminder was arguably the series' most valuable player as he led the Wolves to four straight wins after dropping the opener to Brampton in game 1.

"We saw some predictions and no one had us winning," Palazzese told Rogers TV in a post-game interview.

"We just stuck to our game plan and we did it to a 'T' from games 2 to 5 so it was good."