There was a bit of snow falling early Thursday morning in North Bay, perhaps foreshadowing the impending battle that was on tap for later in the evening at Memorial Gardens. North Bay prevailed, weathering the Storm (both the team from Guelph and the flurries from the sky) by taking down their Western Conference opponents 4-3 in a back-and-forth tilt on home ice.
The teams traded goals throughout the final frame, but it was Lirim Amidovski’s sixth goal of the season that held up as the game winner.
At 17:02, Amidovski redirected a pass from Jacob LeBlanc into the net to put North Bay ahead 4-3.
“We came back into the zone off a hard back check and Smitty (Reth Smith) gave it over to Jacob who threw it on net, and I was just there for the tap in,” says Amidovski.
“He’s become a real difference maker,” says Oulahen. “There were times when I was trying to get him on the ice a little bit more and get him out there with different lines, because you can tell when he’s got his legs going, he’s got that mojo going, and he’s somebody that has come a long way here.”
The victory makes it two in a row for the Troops (10-9-2-0) coming off another one-goal victory, when they beat Sudbury on Sunday, 6-5 in overtime.
“That’s a good result, I thought it was a battle out there,” says Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen.
“I was impressed with their team speed, and I felt we had to get going a little bit early in the game, and I felt from the ten minute mark from the second period and onwards, I liked how we played our game.”
It was near that point that the Battalion were able to tie things up, after going down 2-1.
North Bay’s equalizer at 16:05 was made possible when Dylan Richter gained the attacking zone on a two-on-one with Jacob LeBlanc. Richter went to the left side of the zone, fed the pass across to LeBlanc, who took the shot. Storm goaltender Brayden Gillespie made the save but gave up a juicy rebound which Nolan Laid (3) pounced all over and buried into the back of the net for a 2-2 tie.
“I worked hard coming back on that track and got lucky with that rebound,” says the Port Perry, Ontario native. "We’ve been working on that pass off pad play all week, and I was fortunate enough to be there.”
The Battalion then came flying out of the gates in the third period, looking for the go-ahead-goal, and were peppering Gillespie (6-10-0-0) with shots from the dangerous scoring areas, but the third-year goaltender kept his composure through the first four minutes of the period.
Jacob Therrien was penalized for roughing at 4:23, putting the Battalion in a potentially precarious spot at that stage of the game. The Battalion entered the contest 16th in the league on the penalty kill at 73.9% (the numbers dip slightly when they are the home side, killing penalties with an efficiency rate of 70.3%). However, the Battalion not only killed off the roughing minor, but they also got two short-handed chances within the two minutes, although they weren’t able to convert on either of them, keeping the game tied at 2-2.
“That was a big kill. It was a tough call to get at that point, and it was one of those situations where you have to make sure you kill that off, because that could’ve been a difference maker in the game,” says Oulahen, who can be extra satisfied with the team going 4/4 on the penalty kill overall on the evening.
Later in the third, the Battalion took their second lead of the night on an Ethan Procyszyn (16) power play goal at 13:08, picking up a loose puck off a rebound and burying it under Gillispie for a 3-2 North Bay lead.
“He’s a pleasure to have on your roster at any given time in the game,” says Oulahen. “His nickname is pro, but that’s not just because of his name, it’s because of how he plays the game, on both sides of the puck.”
North Bay was 1 for 3 overall on their power play opportunities.
Procyszyn made a play late in the game that might’ve stopped a scoring opportunity for the Storm. With Guelph pressing in the final minute, looking to tie the game again, a shot towards the North Bay net ended up in the corner, and Procyszyn raced over to dig it out and clear it out of the zone, forcing the Storm to regroup from the neutral zone with time winding down.
“He gets a tough matchup every single night, he’s always going up against the other teams best player and he’s able to produce offensively night in and night out,” says Oulahen, alluding to Procyszyn’s 1.19 points per game average. The third round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks (2024 #68) now has 25 points through the first 21 games of the regular season.
Coming off a two-goal-three-point performance in Sunday’s 6-5 win over Sudbury, which included the game winning goal in overtime, Owen Van Steensel got right back on the goal sheet early in the contest.
The captain found a loose puck bouncing off the end boards, and he pinched in, unnoticed by the Storm defence towards the goal. The puck landed perfectly onto his stick, and he did not give Gillespie any time to react, redirecting the puck past the Storm net minder to get North Bay ahead 1-0 at the 3:03 mark of the first period.
It was Van Steensel’s 10th goal of the season, and the fourth year forward has now scored double digit goals in all four of his OHL campaigns (10 in ‘21-22, 11 in ‘22-23, 41 in ‘23-24). Shamar Moses picked up the assist, giving him a helper in three straight contests and nine in his last seven games as he finished the night with two points, including getting an assist on the Procyszyn goal.
Guelph tied the game at 7:04 of the first. Vilmer Alriksson (5) was set up by the blocker side post and after receiving a perfect pass from the top of the circle from Jett Luchanko, Alriksson spun around and in mid-motion fired the puck by Battalion goaltender Mike McIvor to make it 1-1.
It was McIvor’s second start since suffering an injury which held him out of the previous six contests, and McIvor looked good throughout the night, including making a big save 14 minutes into the game, when he stopped the Storm with a blocker save, and followed it up by sprawling to his right side throwing out the glove to rob a second Storm player of a golden chance to take the lead. McIvor (7-2-1-0) was 26 for 29 in the saves department, while his counterpart Gillispie was 23 for 27.
Guelph took their first lead of the game just moments into the second period. Cam Allen finished off a good passing play inside the North Bay zone, where the Storm kept the Battalion defense on their toes, before playing the puck to the line where Allen (6) sent in a wrister for the 2-1 advantage, just 24 seconds into the period.
On the injury front, the Battalion are still missing Anthony Romani and Ihnat Pazzii who haven’t been able to play since October 11, and another forward may be joining them on the IL. Over age forward Andrew LeBlanc took a rough spill in the third period and wasn’t able to stand back up. He was helped off the ice and it appeared he couldn’t put any weight on the injured leg.
With two more games on tap this weekend on the road (Peterborough on Saturday, Kingston on Sunday) the Troops will likely need an extra body to fill in if LeBlanc is unable to play in those contests.
Before the game, the Battalion honoured long time OHL official Ken Miller, who passed away earlier this year. This season the players have been wearing stickers on their helmets with a “KM” logo, and on before Thursday’s game, they unveiled a memorial sign on the gondola to honour his legacy.
Miller was a tireless worker who undertook several roles including as a supervisor, instructor, mentor and on-ice official.
“Miller always tried to promote the local guys,” says Off-ice official Vince Caliciuri. “He was really good about bringing guys down to Toronto to do some Marlies games in the hopes they would get some experience and have the possibility of being promoted.”
Miller would take notes from his favourite spot up in the rafters at Memorial Gardens and would then take those notes and go over the highs and lows of the games with the referees.
“Always have your head on a swivel, was one of his favourite sayings,” says off-ice official Mike Brideau. “It’s great to see him being honoured in this way. He always treated us fairly and had lots of positive feedback for us during the games. He is missed around the rink.”
