ST. CATHARINES, ON - Andrei Loshko’s power play goal in the third period effectively put the game away for the IceDogs. His fifth of the season gave Niagara a two goal lead with less than two minutes to play, paving the way for their 7-5 victory over the Battalion on Saturday night in St. Catharine's. The goal came on a five-on-three-man advantage as North Bay (4-3-0-0) got into some penalty trouble late in the game, negating their opportunity to overcome a big deficit. Down by just one, the Battalion received a holding call at 17:23 and at 17:55, they received a cross-checking penalty, followed by an unsportsmanlike, resulting in a double minor. It was an unfortunate end to a game where the Battalion, no matter how many goals they were down, never really felt like they were out of the game.
At one point there trailed 5-1, then 6-3, before they pulled to within a goal in the later stages of the third. It was one of those games where bad luck seemed to follow the Troops who outshot the IceDogs 48-28 and outdrew them 37-26 in the face-off circle, and also had more opportunities on the power play going 2 for 5 compared to Niagara’s 1 for 5. But despite stretches of sustained pressure, it was the IceDogs who were getting the goals when they needed them.
The Battalion were facing their former goaltender Charlie Robertson (1-1-0-0), who was traded at the deadline for defenceman Bronson Ride. Last season, Robertson was 2-1-0-0 in four games against the Battalion with a 5.77 GAA and .860 SV%. He made 43 saves against his former team to get his current team to a 5-1-0-0 record through their first six games.
Despite not having the services of Anthony Romani (out with a broken clavicle) and Ihnat Pazii (out with an upper body injury) the Battalion put together a good opening twenty minutes. They won 14 of 16 faceoffs and outshot the IceDogs 17-8, but they found themselves trailing in the only category that mattered, which was the score. Through the first twenty, the Battalion were down 2-1.
Matthew Virgilio (1) opened the scoring at 2:35. It was one of the hottest players in the league, Kevin He (7-8-15, second in league scoring) setting up the play. He controlled the puck on the forecheck and the Battalion could not get the puck off him deep in the zone. The puck got moved around below the goal line, with Ryan Roobroeck passing it back to the top of the zone right to Virgilio, and the former Soo Greyhound wired a shot in past Charlie Larocque (1-2-0-0), making it 1-0 for the home side.
Niagara went up 2-0 when the Battalion failed to clear the puck out of the zone from behind their own net. The IceDogs took possession and from the near side boards Alex Assadourian (2) flipped a shot towards the net that got by Larocque. Former Powassan Voodoo Mike Levin picked up an assist on the play and finished the night with two points and a +1 rating.
The Troops came right back after the Assadourian goal, winning an offensive zone draw back to the point where Ride took a shot from just inside the blue line. The shot bounced off Robertson and sat right in front of him where Ethan Procyszyn was set up. Procyszyn found the loose puck and backhanded it past Robertson to get North Bay on the board, making it 2-1 at 17:12. It’s the sixth goal of the season for Procyszyn and the Anaheim Ducks prospect now has a goal in six of the team's first seven games . He spoke to the OHL tonight broadcast during the intermission and said, “Being physical is a big part of my game. Playing that way in both the offensive and defensive zone really help set me up to get those scoring chances.”
They Battalion got a late power play chance but couldn’t convert, and headed into the first intermission down by a goal. Procyszyn said, “We have to get our offence going here, get the pucks towards the net and look for those rebounds.”
Procyszyn added, “We have to come out every single game and work our butt off on every single shift. We’re a hard-working team and we have to keep bringing that every game in order to be successful.”
In the second, the Battalion pressured the IceDogs in the opening ten minutes, but couldn’t find the equalizer. At 8:43, Niagara found themselves deep in the North Bay zone again and Max Crete (4) took the puck to the glove side of the net. He got a quick shot on Larocque who made the first save, but Crete took a couple of whacks at it and managed to squeak it by the North Bay goaltender for a 3-1 Niagara lead.
Just moments later Niagara went up 4-1 on Assadourian’s (3) second goal of the game. Braidy Wassilyn drove down the right side into the Battalion end and dropped the puck to the blue line to Sean Doherty who sent a cross-ice feed to a wide open Assadourian who redirected the puck in the net.
The IceDogs kept pouring it on when Ivan Galiyanov (1) ripped in a one timer on the rush at 14:00 to put Niagara ahead 5-1.
The Battalion cut into the lead at 15:09 on a terrific play that started with Owen Van Steensel moving into the zone down the left side, he played the puck ahead to Procyszyn who stepped into the hashmarks, but at the last second fed the puck across to a wide-open Jacob LeBlanc (3) who beat Robertson glove side to close the gap to 5-2.
North Bay’s power play then went to work moments later when Blair Scott got called for holding at 16:44 and it didn’t take long for the Troops to take advantage. LeBlanc fed the puck to Van Steensel who was behind the goal line, stationed to the right of the far side post. Van Steensel looked to send it back out in front to Procyszyn, but Robertson went for the poke check and the puck took an awkward bounce backwards and ended up in the back of the Niagara net, giving Van Steensel his first goal of the season and his third point of the night, after getting assists on the first two goals of the game.
Loshko (4) scored a short-handed goal at 9:42 to get Niagara up 6-3, but North Bay got one back when Shamar Moses (1) scored his first in a Battalion uniform. Playing in just his second game with North Bay, the former Barrie Colt was set up out front and redirected a perfect pass from Procyszyn at 12:27 to close the gap to 6-4.
Moses would be one of four North Bay players to finish with exactly one goal and two assists on the evening, joining Van Steensel, LeBlanc and Procyszyn.
Moses got his second assist of the game 15:47, setting up Jacob Therrien with a one-timer on the power play to get North Bay to within a goal, making it 6-5 with just over four minutes to play.
It’s been a while since the North Bay Battalion could look at the Niagara IceDogs and see a legitimate contender lining up against them. The last time the IceDogs made the playoffs was in the 2018-19 season, when Niagara won the Central Division and then beat the Battalion 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs. Since then, the IceDogs have gone a combined 69-171-22-5, finishing last in the division in three of the past four seasons, while the Battalion have topped the Central three years running. But as they entered their first head-to-head contest of the year on Saturday night, it had the makings of a big, early season battle between two teams who were tied with eight points entering the game.
The Troops are back on the ice on Thanksgiving Monday, where they will play just their second home game of the season when they host Owen Sound at 2 p.m.
