He might be a top five NHL draft pick this summer, and Porter Martone added to those credentials against North Bay. Martone scored a hat-trick (his second career hat-trick against North Bay) and finished with four points, while Jack Ivankovic made 22 saves, and the Brampton Steelheads defeated the North Bay Battalion 7-2 on Friday night at the CAA Centre.
Martone’s two goals in the second period were the turning point of the contest. His first put the Steelheads ahead early in the second period when he broke right in on North Bay goaltender Charlie Larocque and went for a deke, going forehand-backhand and through the five-hole for his 13th of the season, just 50 seconds into the second frame, getting his home side a 2-1 lead.
After North Bay tied the game, Martone responded once again for the Steelheads scoring his 14th of the season at 13:37. The 18-year-old from Peterborough, ON, took advantage of a tired defensive unit, as the Battalion spent a long time in the zone and couldn’t clear the puck. Martone found an opening, got behind the defense and slipped a shot up high over the shoulder of Larocque, giving him five multi-goal games already this season and this one made it 3-2 for the Steelheads, who would add another goal in the second period and three more in the third.
It’s the third loss in a row for the Battalion who are still missing some big names in their lineup. Last year’s top goal scorer Anthony Romani has been out of action with a broken clavicle since October 11. Ihnat Pazii has also been out since that date with an upper body injury. Number one netminder Mike McIvor has not been available the past two games due to an upper body injury.
That gave first year netminder Larocque (2-5-0-0) a second straight start for the first time in his OHL career. The Kanata, ON product stopped 31 of 36 shots, facing many of them in high pressure situations.
These are two teams that have seen a lot of each other over the last few seasons. Not only are they Central division rivals who play each other six times a year, but over the last two seasons they have gone head-to-head 18 times, including a six game playoff series in 2023, which the Battalion prevailed 4-2.
“Whenever we play these guys it’s a battle,” Captain Owen Van Steensel told the OHL tonight broadcast after the first period. “We’ve seen them a lot over my five-year career here and you always have to bring something a little extra when you play the Steelheads.”
But over the last two years, the Battalion have had the upper hand winning going 9-3-0-0 in the regular season, in addition to the playoff series victory, even though the Mississauga Steelheads were a good team last year.
They finished second in the Central Division, just three points behind the Troops, but for whatever reason they couldn’t manage to beat North Bay, outside of the first meeting of the season. In that game on October 19 in North Bay, the Steelheads came out on top 7-6, before North Bay downed the Steelheads in five straight head-to-head matchups, with only one of those going into overtime.
But the Steelheads loaded up in the off-season, not to mention finding a new home, as the Steelheads of Mississauga became the Steelheads of Brampton, playing out of the former home of the Battalion.
This new look Steelheads squad features some top players from the Western Conference as forward Carson Rehkopf ((Seattle Kraken 2023 2nd round pick, #50) came over from Kitchener and defenceman Spencer Sova (ERI 2020 1st round pick #8 overall) and goaltender Jacob Gibbons (ERI 2022 2nd round pick #38 overall) came over from the Otters. Meantime, Martone came into the season as a possible top five draft pick in this years NHL entry draft.
And on Friday night in Brampton, the Steelheads played to that potential with Martone leading the way.
The Battalion opened the scoring on an out of the box and into the back of the net play. After Ethan Procyszyn served 2 minutes for slashing, he left the sin bin, got the puck and put it past Ivankovic (6-1-0-0) for his 10th of the season at 5:20. It’s his first goal, and second point in his last three games played.
The Steelheads tied the game on nifty passing play in tight of the North Bay net. Rehkopf slid the pass across the zone to Martone, who dragged the puck to the stick side of the goaltender Larocque. Larocque followed Martone and at the last second Martone dished it back to the middle of the slot, where Calgary Flames 2024 draft pick (5th round, #150) Luke Misa (6) was set up, and all he had to do was redirect the puck towards the net for the game tying goal, and the teams went to the locker rooms tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.
“We played hard, but we have to limit the mistakes, it’s two good teams out here,” Van Steensel said.
After the Steelheads took their first lead of the night on Martone’s goal in the second, the Battalion 5th ranked power play got a chance to go to work when Parker Von Richter was penalized for a delay of game at 7:28. 12 seconds of power play time was all they needed as Jacob Therrien (4) ripped in a shot from the left side face-off circle, off a pass from Shamar Moses to tie the game 2-2 at 7:40. It was the second assist of the game for Moses, who has 12 points in 10 games with the Troops.
But it was all Steelheads from that point. After Martone’s second goal, Jack Van Volsen (3) doubled the lead at 14:23 putting Brampton ahead 4-2.
It was Van Volsen again scoring his 4th of the season just 1:04 into the third period, getting the home side ahead 5-2, and shortly after Martone (15) completed the hat-trick at 4:02.
Troy Patton (1) scored his first career OHL goal at 10:45 to round out the scoring.
The Battalion were outshot 36-24. They went 1 for 2 on the power play and 4 for 4 on the penalty kill.
Aside from the result on the ice, it was a somewhat historic day for both franchises, within their various iterations.
The top movie was Training Day (starring Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke and Eva Mendes). “Fallin” by Alicia Keys was the number one song on the Billboard Top 40. The Toronto sports scene was being dominated by Vince Carter, and in October of 2001, the North Bay Centennials were making their last visit to Brampton. It's been 23 years since a team from North Bay played in Brampton. The last meeting of two such teams was when the Centennials beat the Brampton Battalion 3-2 on October 14, 2001.
It's fitting that the team now in Brampton was their former Peel Region rival, the Steelheads, who resided just down the road in Mississauga, making sure the bond and history between these Central division rivals remains intact.
The game was being billed by the commentary team as the “old Brampton team” versus the “new Brampton team,” and it was the first time this Battalion franchise played a game in Brampton since March 29, 2013. That’s when the Sudbury Wolves won 1-0 in overtime in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series, ending the Troops tenure in Brampton.
These teams will get a chance to build on their rivalry almost immediately as Brampton comes north on Sunday with a 2 p.m. start at Memorial Gardens. It will be the first visit to the Gateway City by a Brampton team since October 27, 2001, when the Brampton Battalion tied the North Bay Centennials 2-2.
