Refreshed Troops face 67’s
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion, minus Ty Nelson but with others back in the lineup, returns to Ontario Hockey League action at 7 p.m. Thursday when the Ottawa 67’s invade Memorial Gardens.
The game is one of nine on the schedule as the OHL emerges from its Christmas break. To complete the week’s play, the Battalion visits the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night and plays host to the Oshawa Generals on Sunday in the traditional New Year’s Eve game.
Defenceman Nelson is with Canada at the World Junior Championship at Gothenburg, Sweden, after being made a late addition to the roster. But left winger Ihnat Pazii is back from the juniors’ Division I Group B tournament at Bled, Slovenia, after capturing a silver medal with Ukraine.
Numerous Troops who endured a rash of illnesses in the ranks in the leadup to the break are healthy again, including left winger Owen Van Steensel, who was scratched for the most recent game, a 3-2 victory Dec. 16 over the host Niagara IceDogs.
Rearguard Tnias Mathurin, who last played Nov. 19 and has been sidelined with a shoulder injury, is another potential returnee.
“He’s close — he’s super close,” coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday of Mathurin.
“Obviously, we’re just getting back today. We’ll have a good practice. He’ll be full-fledge practice. Whether he’s in the lineup tomorrow, I honestly don’t know yet, but he is close.”
Oulahen said Pazii’s return is welcome.
“I know he’ll come back with tons of confidence. He was a go-to guy there. We missed him bigtime when he was gone.
“Obviously, our last week going into the break we were stung a little bit with the sickness, but somebody like that we missed. We missed that depth that just adds another dimension to our forwards and some speed and some skill, and we could use that here in our lineup as well.”
Oulahen suggested that Nelson’s absence provides a chance for others to assume greater responsibilities, as was the case when forward Nick Paul was winning gold with Canada in 2015.
“I just remember when Nick Paul left, it was what the group did while he was gone, and that was the Mike Amadio coming-out party and what it allowed for him, so maybe while Ty’s gone it’s going to allow for some other guys to take a little bit more.
“There’s going to be somebody in an offensive role, for sure. There’s going to be guys who are going to have to play a lot more minutes, and we’ll do that by committee. It’s not going to be just one guy who’s going to play another 20 minutes. So I’m more interested in what that’s going to do for our other guys and that group there with him gone for the next two weeks.”
Goaltender Dom DiVincentiis, whose last action was Dec. 7 before he attended the junior selection camp, also is back in the fold after being released.
Oulahen said it’s now time to adopt “a chip on your shoulder.”
“I think for Dom it’s just, ‘Let’s go show the world that they made the wrong choice and away we go.’”
The Ottawa game features Boart Longyear Night.
