As much as every other fan base would hate to admit it, the London Knights are usually the measuring stick for teams around the league. If you can compete with the Knights, who are a perennial favourite to compete for a division, conference, and league championship, you're setting yourself up for success.
But ever since General Manager Adam Dennis and Head Coach Ryan Oulahen have been at the helm, the Knights no longer seem to be on quite the pedestal they were on in past seasons. Going into Friday nights contest in London, the Battalion were 3-1-0 against the Knights since 2019, after going 4-5-3-0 in their first six seasons, with only one of those wins coming on the road for North Bay.
This regime of the Troops Front Office has done a tremendous job preparing, drafting and cultivating a team identity that can actively compete with any other team around the league and that was on full display again on Friday night as the Battalion defeated the Knights 4-1 at the Budweiser Gardens in London, in an early season matchup of finding out what it’s going to take to compete with the top teams around the OHL this season.
To compete with those teams, you have to be able to overcome some adversity, and the Battalion did just that in the early going.
Sam Dickenson (2) opened the scoring by beating Battalion goaltender Dom DiVincentiis on the Knights second shot of the game. At 3:37 of the first period, Dickenson moved from the boards into the slot and fired the puck back across his body to beat DiVincentiis on the glove side to give the Knights the 1-0 lead.
The lead did not last long as the top line came to the rescue right away on the very next shift. Forcing a turnover in the London zone, Dalyn Wakely moved the puck down to Owen Van Steensel, who sent it back to Anthony Romani (3), beating goaltender Michael Simpson to tie the game at 1-1. Romani has goals in back-to-back games on this road trip, which included a 5-4 overtime loss to the Spitfires in Windsor on Thursday evening.
Romani and Wakely were back on the scoreboard at 9:15, setting up Ty Nelson with his first of the season. It came after London’s Ryder Boulton received a four-minute double minor for high sticking and the Troops took advantage. After going 0/6 on the man advantage one night earlier in Windsor, Nelson made sure they wouldn’t be saddled with a goose egg two nights in a row as he took the pass and ripped a shot from the high slot after the Troops showed off some great cycle work around the zone to take the 2-1 lead.
Just three minutes later the Troops kept the momentum rolling getting their third goal of the period when Justin Ertel batted in a puck at the side of the net. The goal was set up by Troops 2023 first round draft pick Carter Kostuch bringing the puck out of the defensive zone and making a pass up to Ertel at the blue line to gain great zone entry. The assist is Kostuch’s first career OHL point, and it helped the Battalion carry a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
Van Steensel, who is from Ilderton, Ontario, situated just outside of London, spoke on the OHL tonight broadcast following the first period and said he had just about every single member of his family in attendance and thanked them for all the support over the years. He added, “I grew up sitting in the top row of this building watching the Knights play so it was pretty special to be down on the ice and in the starting lineup tonight.”
Van Steensel also spoke about overcoming the 1-0 deficit saying, “It was early and there was no point in getting down on ourselves. We trust in what we do, we trust the coaches and we trust the systems and we just knew that if we stuck with it we could be successful.”
The three early goals against Simpson must felt like sweet revenge for the Troops as Friday nights game was a showdown between the two goalies in last year's OHL Eastern Conference Final. Winnipeg Jets prospect DiVincentiis was manning the net for the Battalion while opposing him was Simpson – one of the stars of Peterboroughs run to the Memorial Cup last season. Simpson posted a 2.80 goals against average and 0.918 save percentage in 23 playoff games as he led the Petes passed the Battalion in the East finals, and his new team, the Knights, in the OHL finals. Simpson is not drafted but the 20-year-old London native was invited to the Pittsburgh Penguins development camp in July before being traded to his hometown team, the Knights, just a few weeks ago, ahead of the 2023-24 OHL season.
After giving up the early goal, DiVincentiis (2-1-0-0) proceed to stop the next 31 pucks that came his way, coming up with a huge sequence of saves late in the second period with the team on a 5-on-3 penalty kill. The Battalion were outshot 32-21 overall, and 26-7 in the final two periods but with Dom on his game, the Troops survived a few waves and DiVincentiis earned first star honours for his efforts over the 60 minutes of play, which included the Troops keeping the Knights off the board on all four of their Power Play chances.
The Battalion added a late goal in the third at 17:19 when Jacob Therrien (2) was skating with the puck towards an empty net on a breakaway, before he was hacked at and hauled down, not allowing him to shoot the puck. The official awarded him the goal regardless, to round out the scoring in front of 9036 in attendance.
The Battalion are now 2-1-1-1 and have points in three straight games. They will look to make it four straight with an afternoon affair against Owen Sound on Thanksgiving Monday at Memorial Gardens.
The Frontline Broadcast will have the North Bay Mitsubishi After Action report live on Spreaker following the conclusion of that game.
