A string of penalties in the third period and the inability to capture a lead was the difference in the 4-3 loss for North Bay at the hands of the Otters in Erie on Friday night.
The Otters were coming in hot, having won three in a row and continued their strong stretch since the beginning of November. They entered the month with a 4-7-2-0 record and since their November 2nd defeat over the Saginaw Spirit, the Otters have lost just four times in regulation, improving to 14-11-4-0 (after Fridays win over North Bay), picking up 22 out of a possible 32 points in that span.
The Battalion (14-12-4-1), now have just one win in their last five games but are dealing with some injuries, illnesses, and players out of the lineup over the last few weeks and they’ll have one more opportunity to get back in the win column before the Christmas break when they visit the Ice Dogs in Niagara on Saturday night.
They’ll need to be able to not stay satisfied with just tying the game in order to get those two points though as they erased three separate one –goal deficits over the course of 60 minutes against the Otters, but never found that extra push they needed to overtake Erie.
With the Battalion serving a second straight penalty in the third period, the Otters took advantage and Ondrej Molnar (10) scored the game-winning goal at 12:42 of the third period, giving the Otters a 4-3 lead.
It came just a few minutes after Anthony Romani (24) tied the game at 3-3 for the Battalion, the third time they had evened the game against the Otters. Romani’s goal at 8:14 of the third was scored as the third year forward came out of the corner, made his way through to the front of the net and lifted the puck up high to beat the netminder.
It’s a new career high for goals in a season for Romani and gives him 55 in his career. The Troops third-round draft pick in 2021 is also one point away from a 50 point season.
The lone goal of the second period came off the stick of Georgy Toroptsev at 2:55 for his first career OHL goal. Late in the second period there was a dangerous play in front of the North Bay net where it appeared as if an Otters player may have forced Battalion forward Ethan Procyszyn into goaltender Charlie Robertson, who fell backwards and hit his head off the post. He was looked after by the training staff and was helped off the ice. He came back from the locker room after the second intermission and was on the bench for the remainder of the game.
Both Robertson and McIvor made some spectacular saves during the game, doing what they could to keep their team in it. McIvor made several of those in the third period, but got beat by Molnar on the power play, the lone goal he gave up on 15 shots.
Sam Alfano opened the scoring in the first, picking up his ninth of the season just 4:27 into the game. He was set up right in front of the goaltender Robertson and after he received a pass from Pano Fimis, Alfano turned around and tucked the puck under Robertson. It was the third straight game in which the Otters had opened the scoring.
The assist from Fimis was the 123rd career point for the former second overall pick by the Niagara IceDogs, who selected Fimis in 2020, one pick after the North Bay Battalion chose defenceman Ty Nelson (who was not in the lineup on Friday in Erie). Fimis spent a year and a half in Niagara before the IceDogs sent south of the border on New Years Day (January 1st 2023) in exchange for five draft picks.
At 10:43 the Battalion evened things up when defenceman Paul Christopulos pinched into the zone to pick up a loose puck and fired it passed Corbeil, Ontario native Ben Gaudreau to make it 1-1.
Alex Messier (2) gave the Otters a 2-1 lead at 11:35, but North Bay once again responded, this time at 16:42 off Justin Ertel’s 12th goal of the season. Alex Cajkovic took the initial shot, which hit Gaudreau and bounced back into the slot. Jacob Therrien recovered the rebound and slid it across to Ertel who tapped it in as Gaudreau was still recovering from blocking the Cajkovic shot. It was a power play goal for the Battalion, and the teams entered the first intermission tied 2-2.
It was the Troops first loss in five years in Erie as they picked up wins in their lone visits from the 2018 season through the 2022 season. The last defeat on the road against the Otters was a 3-0 shutout on December 16th 2017.
The Otters outshot the Battalion 39-26 on Friday night, while both teams were 1-3 on the power play.
The Battalion will head back to the Canadian side of the border and look to snap the two-game losing streak when they face the IceDogs in St. Catharine's. Puck drop is schedueled for 7pm.
