Battalion back at home
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion, coming off a season-high five straight road games, returns to home ice at 7 p.m. Thursday to face the Kingston Frontenacs.
The Battalion has a won-lost-extended record of 13-9-5 for 31 points, second in the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division, two points behind the Mississauga Steelheads, who hold two games in hand. Kingston is 12-13-1 for 25 points, fourth in the East Division.
In a rematch of an 8-6 Battalion victory last Friday night at the Leon’s Centre, the Battalion will wear Centurion-themed sweaters for the first time this season before getting back on the bus to travel to Mississauga for a 7 p.m. Friday showdown.
Coach Ryan Oulahen, whose Troops went 3-2-0 in the road stretch and are 7-4-1 in their last 12 games, is focused on the Kingston clash before contemplating Mississauga.
“I’m looking at the Kingston game,” Oulahen declared Wednesday.
“We went into that building. They played extremely hard against us. If it wasn’t for some guys having some big offensive nights, that could have been a different outing for us. Literally, the video today will be on the Kingston Frontenacs, and we’ll worry about the next one after that.”
The Battalion lost 6-5 Sunday to the Ottawa 67’s in completing the series of away dates, while Kingston rebounded with a 4-3 overtime win against the visiting Flint Firebirds.
North Bay, which has scored 110 goals in 27 games, the same total as a year ago, has given up 108 for an average of 4.00 per game, compared with 76 against for an average of 2.82 in 2022-23. That doesn’t jibe with the preseason view that defence was a strength and scoring might be an issue.
“It’s something that we are working on bigtime here,” allowed Oulahen.
“If you ask me to narrow it down, I mean we’re making mistakes. It’s clear as day, some of the things that need to get fixed, and unfortunately it’s the players that have to make those adjustments and just continue to work on it. I do think it’s going to click over time.
“I’m not a big believer in all of a sudden throwing in the towel and changing systems that have been proven to work over the last couple of years.”
Meanwhile, Oulahen and others have been buoyed by Hockey Canada inviting goaltender Dom DiVincentiis and defenceman Ty Nelson to the national junior team’s selection camp at Oakville, Ont., starting Sunday. The World Junior Championship is scheduled Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 at Gothenburg, Sweden.
“It’s the first step,” said Oulahen. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but I think those two guys are going to go and represent us extremely well, and hopefully we can continue to cheer them on.”
Oulahen said he told the invitees that there’s no time to spare in impressing the national team staff.
“It’s a very condensed camp, and you just can’t waste time, so they’ve got to be ready.”
Nelson and DiVincentiis both said that the invitation is an honour.
“Obviously, as a kid growing up your goal is to make the world juniors and represent your country, so one step’s done there by going to camp, so now the other step is getting to camp and just being able to show myself and just play and try my best to make the team,” said Nelson.
Oulahen acknowledged that the Battalion will miss both camp aspirants for however long they’re gone.
“Those are going to be two massive holes that are going to have to be done by committee, but I do think we’re looking forward to giving some guys who have been biding some time here, been patient, giving them more opportunity, more ice time, and seeing what those guys can do.”
The Troops already are without left winger Ihnat Pazii, who left Sunday from Ottawa for Bled, Slovenia, where he will play for Ukraine in the 2024 World Junior Championship Division I B tournament next week.
