A Saturday night battle at the Meridian Center in St. Catharines saw a clash between two eastern conference teams facing two different realities.
The first story is that of the Niagara IceDogs, having one of their best seasons in recent years, who entered this game second in the east, only a point behind the Oshawa Generals, and hoping to take over the top spot tonight with a win.
Then there is the tale of the North Bay Battalion. A team decisively working their way out of the first rebuild they have been faced with since pre-COVID. Despite this the Battalion found themselves only one point behind the Ottawa ‘67s for the final playoff spot in the east going into this matchup.
On this night though it would be the home IceDogs who would walk away with the two points, and the top spot in the eastern conference as they defeated the North Bay Battalion 3-1.
The win came largely off the back of OHL veteran netminder Owen Flores, being faced with a barrage from the Battalion, turning aside 43 of 44 shots.
Offensively it was Ryan Roobroeck who shined brightest for Niagara, picking up a goal and two assists on the night.
The opening period reflected the importance of this game as the IceDogs and Battalion rapidly and fiercely traded chances over the first minutes of play, with the visiting Troops putting IceDogs netminder Owen Flores to work, getting 18 shots on net by the end of the opening frame.
None would find the back of the net.
The first goal of the game would come from the ninth IceDogs shot, and with just over two minutes remaining in the period. Ryan Roobroeck won a battle down in the corner and slid the puck to the high slot, finding Jack Brauti. Brauti would fake a wrist shot, instead slinging the puck to Ivan Galiyanov who wired home the 1-0 goal for the home team and snapped his 19-game goalless streak.
The pressure would maintain out of the intermission for Niagara. Again, it was Ryan Roobroeck drawing coverage in the corner, this time finding Noah Van Vliet just below the blue line. Van Vliet would take two strides and rip a high shot through a screen and over the shoulder of Jack Lisson to extend the home team lead to 2-0 just 38 seconds into the period.
The Battalion after 40 minutes more than had their chances. A couple of breakaways from the likes of Ihnat Pazii and Andrew LeBlanc were nullified by very active backchecking, and odd man rushes shut down in similar fashion.
The IceDogs continued to out-check, and out-battle the Battalion in the third period, creating space for rushes and plays, firing shot after shot at North Bay netminder Jack Lisson. To his credit Lisson would not let in a single goal in the final frame.
But with these rushes and with this space the Battalion would get one back.
Nolan Laird would race for the puck and beat two defenders as he crossed over the IceDogs blue line. Laird reached the top of the faceoff dot, picked his spot, and fired in a powerful wrist shot to beat Flores for his sixth goal of the season and only North Bay goal of the game. Ryder Carey would be credited with the lone assist on the play.
Ryan Roobroeck would then pick up the empty net goal and seal the deal as the Niagara IceDogs would claim victory 3-1.
Shots on goal at the end of the game would be 44 for North Bay and 26 for the IceDogs.
Both teams would also go scoreless on the powerplay. The Battalion 0 for 3 and Niagara not capitalizing on the lone opportunity afforded to them.
North Bay gets a shot at redemption quickly as they swing over to Brantford to face the newly purchased Bulldogs for a 4 p.m. puck drop at the Brantford Civic Centre.