The Battalion was looking for a rebound after one of their worst home losses of the season.
Well 24 hours later after that 5-1 home ice loss to the Kitchener Rangers, Head Coach Stan Butler wasn’t expecting his team to respond with one of its worst road periods to start against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Friday night in the Lock City.
The Western Conference leaders erupted for 4 goals in the first period and added three more in the final frame in a convincing 7-3 win for the Greyhounds over the Battalion Friday night at the Essar Centre.
Michael Bunting led the Hounds with 3 goals while the Battalion was led by Nick Paul who finished with 2 goals in the setback.
Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler felt it was a tale of two games.
"I thought they were really good and we looked like we were skating in quicksand and in the second period, I thought our guys played harder, I”m not saying I got into the game but we made the game respectable and in the third period we hoped to have that same kind of effort and we were back more to what we were like in the first period," Bulter told the Sault Ste. Marie media after the game Friday.
"Our team, you go through different phases in a season, and I call this the fragile phase. You know we’ve got a lot of games in very few days and really no time to work on the things we need to work on so we are just going to have to hang in there and weather the storm," he added.
Things started well for the Troops in this one.
On a power play a Brenden Miller shot deflected off the skate of Nick Paul to give the Battalion a 1-0 lead at 3:29 of the opening period.
Shortly after that Jake Smith made his biggest save of the period, as the Hounds sent forward Bryan Moore in all alone on Smith who made the key save.
It was really only the beginning of a very busy period for Smith as the Greyhounds responded.
Zach Senyshyn picked up a loose puck in the slot and ripped it past Smith to even the score at 4:44.
Then, less than a minute later Michael Bunting buried a nice back door feed to give the Greyhounds the 2-1 lead with helpers going to Jared McCann and Tyler Hore at 5:25. This tic-tac-toe play was a highlight reel goal for the Hounds.
The Hounds continued to pour it on as Sergey Tolchinsky made a quick spin move behind the net and walked into the slot and beat Smith to make it 3-1 Greyhounds at 11:32. Smith stopped the initial shot but Tolchinsky put away his own rebound.
Then, on a late first period power play, Bunting got a feed in the slot from Tolchinsky that finished off another nice passing play again to give the Hounds the 4-1 lead at 17:24.
Bunting was able to slip by both Ray Huether and Miles Liberati to put home their fourth tally of the period.
The Hounds outshot the visiting Battalion 18-6 in the opening period.
After allowing 4 goals in the opening period, the Battalion elected to put in Sault Ste. Marie native Jake Kment to start the second period and give Jake Smith a break.
Halverson made his biggest save on a mid period Battalion power play as Nick Moutrey got a pass in the slot and Halverson made a lunging blocker save.
However, moments later Kyle Wood’s shot, tipped by Alex Henriksson, got through Greyhounds goalie Brandon Halverson as they cut the lead to 4-2 at 11:08.
Kment made a tremendous save on a partial breakaway as he turned away Jared McCann near the 12 minute mark.
Then Kment made a couple more key saves after a Battalion power play.
The second period was a much better effort for the Troops, who outshot the Greyhounds 18-9 in the middle frame as Kment was perfect in his first period in his hometown.
“The first period was not what we wanted,” stated Battalion forward Nick Paul during an OHL Tonight second period intermission.
“The second was the way we play and third needs to be better and we need to capitalize on our chances. We’ve been an up and down team right now and we can be a dangerous team we showed that and we need to find the team that we can be.”
However, the third period ended up looking a lot more like the first again.
Early in the period, the Battalion struggled to get the puck out and Michael Bunting slipped home his 30th goal of the season to make it 5-2 only 47 seconds in.
Then, not long after Bunting’s goal, the Hounds buzzed around the Battalion zone and Tyler Hore ripped a shot past Kment to make it 6-2 only 1:18 into the third period.
Jean Dupuy made it 7-2 courtesy of Jake Kment, who played the puck behind the net and his backhand clearing shot was intercepted behind the Battalion net and Dupuy picked it off and put it into the empty cage for one of the easiest goals he will ever score in the OHL at 7:22.
The Battalion rounded out the scoring when Nick Paul put home a rebound off a Michael Amadio on a late third period power play to make it 7-3.
The Greyhounds ended up outshooting the visiting Battalion 42-34 on the night. Jake Smith was credited with the loss as he made 14 stops. Jake Kment made 21 saves in relief.
The Battalion will travel home and face the Niagara IceDogs at 2:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gardens in hopes of breaking out of this short but not pretty three-game losing streak.
The Battalion loss allowed the Ottawa 67's to tie them in the Eastern Conference standings Friday night as both teams now sit with 67 points after 55 games.
The surging 67's defeated the Saginaw Spirit 4-1 on Friday night to catch the Troops in the standings.
(PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds forward Michael Bunting scores on Jake Smith of the North Bay Battalion during a game on February 20, 2015 at the Essar Centre in Sault Ste. Marie. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)
