‘Backs against the wall’
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion, trailing its first-round Ontario Hockey League playoff series with the Brantford Bulldogs three games to none, has no room left for error.
Some would compare the current Eastern Conference quarterfinal with the conference final last spring, when North Bay rallied from three games down to force Game 7 before succumbing to the Oshawa Generals.
But coach Ryan Oulahen dismissed that thinking Wednesday, instead pointing to the battle the Troops waged to secure the final playoff berth ahead of the Ottawa 67’s.
“We feel like we’ve been backs against the wall for a good two months,” Oulahen said as the Battalion prepared for Game 4 at 7 p.m. Thursday at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
“There’s probably been three or four almost feeling like must-win games down the stretch. I think we’ve got to play it the same way.”
The Battalion lost two games at Brantford before the visiting Bulldogs won 4-3 Tuesday night on Marek Vanacker’s second goal of the game at 5:29 of overtime. Despite now facing elimination, Oulahen suggested, his charges are improving.
“We’re trending in the right way. When you look at the games, we’ve gotten a little bit better each and every game.”
Brantford’s Noah Nelson scored the only goal of the first period at 7:35, and the visitors led 2-1 after 40 minutes before North Bay rallied from a 3-1 third-period deficit on goals by Ethan Procyszyn and Lirim Amidovski to force overtime.
“I thought for the first 10, 15 minutes we were a little bit tentative, hesitant, made some systematic errors, and Mikey kept us in it,” Oulahen said of goaltender Mike McIvor, who made 34 saves.
“So we were feeling really good after that first, just the way that we were able to stay in that hockey game, and that’s to do with our goaltender. He gives us a chance every single night.”
Oulahen acknowledged that the Battalion, which hasn’t led on the scoreboard in the series, would be well served to score first.
“They’re such a good defensive team over there and, when they get up, they’re able to protect the inside ice really well. They do an underrated job of that, actually, in the league. Sometimes when you can get on a team, you force them to open things up a little bit. I mean, that would be in a perfect situation, but every game’s going to play itself out. We’ve just got to be ready for the start.”
Especially welcome, Oulahen noted, has been the energy level of the younger Troops.
“It’s been awesome. I’ve been really, really impressed. You talk about the experience that we’re going through. There’s nowhere you can buy it. You can’t go and purchase this experience. You have to live it. You have to go through it, and the fact that we’re doing that and really elevating our play and elevating our compete, and the buy-in factor is outstanding, so extremely happy.”
If the Battalion wins, Game 5 will be played at Brantford at 7 p.m. Saturday.
