Battalion beats Barrie 4-1
BARRIE, Ont. — Lirim Amidovski scored two goals, the winner and an empty-netter, to lead the North Bay Battalion to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory Saturday night over the Barrie Colts.
Anthony Romani also had an empty-net goal and an assist for North Bay, which got its other goal from Ethan Procyszyn. Goaltender Charlie Larocque made 23 saves in his OHL debut before 3,076 at the Sadlon Arena as the Battalion posted a second consecutive win to start the campaign.
The Troops, without the suspended Jacob Therrien for the first of a season-high six straight road games, blanked the visiting Peterborough Petes 4-0 in their season opener Friday night.
Kashawn Aitcheson scored for Barrie, while goaltender Sam Hillebrandt stopped 23 of 25 shots. The Colts downed the host Sudbury Wolves 3-1 Friday night in the curtain-raiser for both teams.
Amidovski broke a 1-1 tie at 15:03 of the third period, driving down the left wing, his off side, and cutting to the net to fire the puck past Hillebrandt. Brayden Turley assisted on the play.
Larocque robbed Shamar Moses in front in the 17th minute, and Romani hit the empty net for his first goal of the season at 19:13 with Barrie skating five against four as each team served a minor penalty and Hillebrandt sat on the bench for an extra attacker.
Amidovski put his second goal into the vacant cage at 19:35 to end the scoring.
Having trailed 1-0 through 40 minutes, Barrie tied it on Aitcheson’s power-play goal at 2:34 of the period. The goal came four seconds into the second half of a double minor for high-sticking issued to Wyatt Kennedy for getting the stick up to defend himself from a hacking approach by defenceman Aitcheson at a whistle.
Procyszyn opened the scoring with his second goal on the power play at 8:03 of the first period. Owen Van Steensel fed the puck from behind the net to the onrushing Procyszyn, who ripped it past Hillebrandt. Romani had the other assist.
Larocque made a right-pad stop against Emil Hemming in the first minute before Barrie’s Riley Patterson was handed a match penalty for slew-footing at 2:07. The Battalion had plenty of offensive-zone possession with the man advantage but largely was kept to the periphery, and Procyszyn was whistled for hooking at 5:44 to end the power play.
Barrie then had a two-second man advantage before Brad Gardiner went off for hooking at 7:09, setting the stage for Procyszyn’s tally.
Nolan Laird fought the Colts’ Evan Passmore at 5:42 of the second period after he delivered a head check to Kent Greer. Laird got the takedown after a lengthy exchange of blows, drawing an instigating minor, fighting major and misconduct to Passmore’s head-checking minor and fighting major.
Larocque snagged an Aitcheson blast off the right wing at 19:18 to preserve the Battalion lead into the second intermission.
The Battalion opens a three-game eastern swing at Peterborough at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: Therrien served the first game of a two-game suspension resulting from a head-checking major and game misconduct against Peterborough. Ihnat Pazii was spared a suspension when it was deemed that his scrap with Blake Gowan occurred simultaneously with another bout and wasn’t a second fight at the same stoppage … In 190 games, Romani has 90 goals and 81 assists for 171 points, one more than Kyle Jackson and 17th on the franchise scoring list … In 201 games, Van Steensel has 62 goals and 87 assists for 149 points, 25th on the Battalion’s all-time list, one point behind John Hughes and Kamil Kreps … The Battalion went 1-for-5 on the power play. Barrie was 1-for-7 … Opening lines saw Procyszyn centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Romani, Andrew LeBlanc centring left winger Pazii and right winger Amidovski and Laird pivoting left winger Natan Teshome and right winger Ryder Carey. Dylan Richter centred left winger Reyth Smith and right winger Stepan Chukharev … Defence pairings were Bronson Ride with Kennedy, Turley with Jacob LeBlanc and Tyson Rismond with Greer … Chukharev also made his OHL debut … Apart from Therrien, the Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Aaron Enright, Dalyn Wakely and Zach Wilson … Among the missing for Barrie were Cole Beaudoin, Beau Jelsma and Beau Akey … The Colts acquired Swedish import Gabriel Eliasson from the Niagara IceDogs for two OHL Priority Selection picks on Wednesday.
