Special teams defined the second meeting of the season between the Battalion and the Wolves. On Friday night in Sudbury, it was a pair of power play goals and a short handed marker which allowed the Wolves to pick up their second win in five days over North Bay, this one a 2-1 victory in regulation. This comes on the heels of a 4-3 overtime win on Sunday in North Bay, in which the Wolves skated away with the extra point, after trailing early in the third period.
The Battalion entered Friday’s game with the third best power play in the league, while the Wolves countered with the best penalty kill in the OHL. It was the Wolves whose special teams continued to stifle the opposition, with a 90.5% penalty kill (2/21) at home through their first four games at the Sudbury Community Arena and finishing the night 5 for 5 in that category while going 2 for 5 on their power play chances.
And those chances came in untimely fashion for the Battalion late in the game. Down by just one, they took a couple of penalties within the last five minutes that really hurt their chances to get a sustained offensive push going while looking for the late equalizing goal.
Between the penalties and some long stretches of no play in which the officials put the headsets on for reviews (multiple times), the Battalion couldn’t get into a good rhythm to tie the game in the later stages.
Still, it might feel like a missed opportunity for North Bay when the look back on it as they were right in this game with Sudbury (7-4-0-0), especially through the first two periods as they finished even in shots at 20 apiece, but Nate Krawchuk (2-3-0-0) was just one save better than Mike McIvor (5-2-1-0) through the opening 40 minutes.
Sudbury opened the scoring in the first. The Wolves were on the power play late in the frame with Jacob Therrien in the box for roughing at 15:47. Off the offensive zone face-off the Wolves played the puck to the point where defenseman Nick DeAngelis slapped in a shot from the point which McIvor made the initial save on. But the rebound bounced about three feet to his left side where Chase Coughlan (8) grabbed hold of the loose puck, spun, and managed to backhand it under the pads of the North Bay netminder to put the Wolves on the board 1-0 at 15:55.
Coughlan was then in the Sudbury penalty box the next time the Wolves scored. The Battalion were on the power play after Coughlan got called for roughing at 11:13. The Wolves forced a turnover in their own zone and Chicago Blackhawks prospect (2023 round 4 #99) Alex Pharand raced down the right wing, going end-to-end and as he entered the right side circle in the North Bay zone, he zipped a pass to a wide open Kocha Delic (2) in the slot, who shot high stick side for the second Sudbury goal, a 2-0 lead at 13:11.
North Bay cut the lead in half on a tremendous individual effort from Lirim Amidovski. After Wyatt Kennedy knocked the puck off the boards and out of the North Bay zone, Amidovski skated past one defender to catch up to the loose puck, then broke in towards the net with another defender draped all over him. Even being held and slightly off balanced, Amidovski (4) still managed to get a shot off and the shot went up and over the shoulder of Nate Krawchuk at 16:07.
In the third period there were chances on both sides, but the main one that sticks out is when Battalion defenseman Bronson Ride had what could have been a game saving play about four minutes into the third period. A shot came in from the far-side boards that pulled McIvor out of his net and the puck slid by McIvor and went off the stick of Ride, and right towards a wide-open net. Just before the puck crossed the goal line, Ride stopped the puck and fired it out of the crease to keep his team to within a goal.
An odd sequence occurred in the third when the Battalion the Battalion were just beginning a penalty kill at 11:53 and Ride got called for roughing at 12:00. However, the officials reviewed the play and realized Nathan Villeneuve also committed an infraction on the play and he got sent to the box for 4 minutes. After an even further review, they deemed that there was no blood drawn on Villeneuve’s high stick-on Wyatt Kennedy, so Villeneuve was only going to be penalized for 2 minutes, and the overall result was four on four action for about 1:50, before a very short North Bay power play.
Villeneuve (2) put the game away with a Sudbury power play goal at 19:49.
It’s early, but it looks like the Battalion and the Wolves will be playing in some very close battles all season long. In 2023-24, seven of the eight games were decided by just one goal. The Battalion won four of the eight meetings against the Wolves in regulation, while three of the Wolves four wins came in either overtime or shootout, giving the Battalion 11 points in eight games against their division rivals.
Despite the loss it’s another tightly played contest for North Bay (7-5-1-0) who lose for the first time in regulation in their last four games, going back to the 3-1 loss to Sarnia on Oct 17.
The Battalion will return home for a Sunday afternoon contest against the Kingston Frontenacs at 2 p.m.
