It was a night to remember for Owen Van Steensel as the third year forward racked up his first career hat trick in the 5-2 win for the North Bay Battalion over the Generals in Oshawa on Sunday evening. Van Steensel had just one prior two goal game in his career, that came on January 30th, 2022 when he scored both goals in North Bays 3-2 shootout win over the Ottawa 67’s.
With the three-goal effort, Van Steensel now has five goals and nine points in eight games this season as he has slotted on to the top line with Anthony Romani and Dalyn Wakely. The trio have combined for 10 goals and 27 points. They are expected to be the main cogs of the offense night in and night out and on this night against Oshawa they stepped up with Wakely and Romani getting three assists throughout the night.
Only one of Van Steensel’s goals had his linemates both assisting on and it was arguably the biggest of the game. At 17:49 and the Troops holding down a 3-2 lead, Romani started a passing play that followed through Wakely and to Van Steensel who picked his spot from the left side circle and beat the goaltender to give the Troops a 4-2 lead.
It completed a natural hat-trick for Van Steensel who scored his first at 11:22 of the second period. the Battalion capitalized on a 4-on-4 play inside the Generals zone. A point shot got through to goaltender Jacob Oster, but he couldn’t hold on to the puck in his glove. The Battalion regained control and after a pass in front of the net, Van Steensel (3) tapped it in to tie the game 2-2.
Van Steensel’s next goal came in the third period, as the Battalion answered the call early on. With the benefit of starting the period on the power play, the Troops went to work right out of the gate and hemmed the Generals deep in their zone. The puck wound up at the side of the net and Van Steensel (4) potted it for his second of the game and at 1:25 of the third period, the Battalion had their first lead of the night.
The Battalion would add an empty net marker at 19:01 of the third with Ty Nelson (2) getting the goal.
It was an uphill battle for the Troops up until Van Steensel gave them that lead in the third as the Generals stormed out of the locker rooms ready to play right at puck drop. A turnover in the neutral zone gave the Generals Rasmus Kumpulainen (2) a clear breakaway chance cand he beat Battalion goaltender Dom DiVincentiis down low to get the games opening tally just 1:40 into the game.
The Troops answered back later in the frame when Jacob Therrien (3) sniped a shot from above the left side circle that went over the shoulder of Oster at 7:00. The second year forward is showing some good potential in the depth scoring department in the early going of this season with four points in his first eight, three of those are goals, after he registered 13 points in 54 games last season.
It was another early goal in the second period that got the Generals back in front, one the Battalion certainly wanted back. Right winger Matthew Buckley went to dump the puck from the Battalion blue line, and as it sailed through the zone, it went off the hand of Troops forward Iggy Pazii and redirected past DiVincentiis after a few tricky bounces. The goal for Buckley is his third, and likely luckiest, of the season, and it came just 3:26 into the middle frame.
Dom didn’t let that throw him off his game the rest of the way as he would make 21 saves overall in the contest to see his record improve to 4-2-0 on the year, and he has allowed more than two goals in just one of his six starts this season.
The Generals were given a big opportunity to answer back mid-way through the third period when Thomas Stewart went to cut off Wakely as he was driving to the net with the puck. Stewart then pushed Wakely into Oster, yet Wakely was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for goaltender interference. During that penalty kill, Wyatt Kennedy took a penalty as well, giving the Generals a sustained 5-on-3. The Battalion spent most of that time in their own zone, but they did a tremendous job blocking shooting lanes and got a couple of key saves from DiVincentiis to not allow the Generals to even up the game on that opportunity.
The Battalion penalty kill is off to a strong start this season with a success rate over 86% through the first eight games as the team improves to 4-2-1-1 with ten points. Up next, the Troops will host the division leading Mississauga Steelheads who bring their 7-1-0-0 record to Memorial Gardens on Thursday evening.