‘Hounds nip Battalion 4-3
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Marco Mignosa scored two goals, including the empty-net winner, and added an assist to pace the Soo Greyhounds to a 4-3 Ontario Hockey League victory Sunday over the North Bay Battalion.
Jordan Charron and Travis Hayes also scored for Soo. Goaltender Noah Tegelaar faced 38 shots, including 20 in the third period, as the Greyhounds moved their won-lost-extended record to 5-3-0.
Ihnat Pazii, Shamar Moses and Arseny Pronin scored for the orange-clad Battalion on Indigenous Youth Day, while goaltender Mike McIvor allowed three goals on 32 shots before 3,478 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
Ryder Cali played for the first time against the club that picked him in the first round, 18th overall, of the 2024 OHL Priority Selection from the North Central Predators U16s. North Bay acquired him on Sept. 13, 2024, for four picks.
The Battalion, 3-3-0, found itself facing a two-man disadvantage three times for a scheduled total of 2:35.
Soo, which led 2-0 through 40 minutes, went up 3-0 when Hayes struck on the power play at 1:01 of the final frame, sprawling in the crease to put home a rebound. Chase Reid and Mignosa assisted on Hayes’s second goal of the season.
Pazii darted deep down the left wing and put the puck off Tegelaar’s right shoulder at 9:03. The unassisted goal was Pazii’s first.
Moses pulled the Troops within 3-2 on the power play at 14:19, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Cam Warren from the top of the left circle. Kent Greer had the other assist on Moses’s second goal.
With McIvor gone for a sixth attacker, Mignosa sent the puck the length of the ice for a two-goal lead at 18:52. The unassisted marker proved the winner after Pronin, at the right side of the crease, converted a Jonathan Kapageridis feed from the left point at 19:19. Nick Wellenreiter also assisted.
Mignosa scored during a two-man advantage at 15:10 of the first period after Cali and Bronson Ride drew the only penalties of the frame, for hooking and roughing respectively, 50 seconds apart. Mignosa snapped the puck through traffic from the mid blue line, with assists to Reid and Quinn McKenzie.
Tegelaar denied Evgeny Dubrovtsev on a shorthanded breakaway in the 17th minute of the period, in which each team had nine shots on goal.
With the teams skating four against four, Charron collected his team-leading eighth goal at 3:46 of the second period from the right-wing circle off a rush. Keegan Gillen drew the lone assist.
McIvor covered up against a Hayes one-timer from the left side at 9:02 before Parker Vaughan and Cali had a two-man break-in chance in the 14th minute, with Vaughan’s initial shot stopped and the puck just missing the right post on the ensuing effort. In the 16th minute, North Bay’s Brandt Harper hit the right post on a drive from the left boards.
Soo received a two-man advantage for 1:07 when Ride and Aaron Enright went off late, with video review confirming the waving off of a would-be Greyhounds goal as time expired.
The Battalion opens a two-game road trip against the Guelph Storm at 7:07 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: Among those taking part in the pregame faceoff were June Commanda of Nipissing First Nation and her great-great-granddaughter Kamilla Commanda. Drumming was performed by the Nbisiing Drum Group with Tory Fisher, and students from Mother St. Bride Catholic Elementary School sang O Canada in English, French and Ojibwe. The orange sweaters, which feature a bear crest designed by Jessica Sommers, are to be auctioned online via DASH for 14 days, with proceeds to Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services … Among the Troops’ several shots off a post was Dubrovtsev’s just after a Moses penalty expired in the eighth minute of the third period … The Battalion went 1-for-4 on the power play. Soo was 2-for-7 … Opening lines featured Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Pronin and right winger Moses, Dubrovtsev centring left winger Pazii and right winger Lirim Amidovski and Warren pivoting left winger Cali and right winger Vaughan. Briir Long centred left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Wellenreiter … Defence pairings saw Ride with Harper, Enright with Greer and Kapageridis with Adrian Manzo … Jack Lisson backed up McIvor … The Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Ryder Carey and Carter Kunopaski … Among the missing for Soo were Brodie McConnell-Barker and Brady Martin, who’s with the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators … Matt Boulby and Andrew Willmetts were the referees.
