Battalion, Bulldogs ready
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion now gets its reward for winning a battle for an Ontario Hockey League playoff berth. It’s a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Brantford Bulldogs.
Brantford posted a won-lost-extended record of 44-19-5 for 93 points to win the East Division title and finish atop the conference, while North Bay went 28-34-6 for 62 points, fifth in the Central Division and eighth in the conference. The teams meet at Brantford at 7 p.m. Friday, with Game 2 on the same ice Sunday night.
Challenging as the matchup may be, coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday that the young Troops are excited to get started.
“We have to make sure we channel the energy in a really good way to follow the game plan to have some success. For the most part, when we’re on, we feel like we can make things difficult on our opponent.”
The rivals played four one-goal games, with the Battalion going 1-3-0. The visiting Troops prevailed 3-2 in overtime Oct. 18 and lost 2-1 on Jan. 19. Brantford won 3-2 on Jan. 30 and 2-1 on March 13, with both games at North Bay.
The Bulldogs’ Nick Lardis scored a league-leading 71 goals and earned 46 assists for 117 points in 65 games, finishing fourth in the OHL scoring race. His 25 power-play goals and 16 game-winning goals topped the league, while his 10 first goals were tied for tops in that category.
Patrick Thomas produced 27 goals and a league-best 77 assists for 104 points in 66 games. Jake O’Brien, who had 32 goals and 66 assists for 98 points in 66 games, led the OHL in power-play assists with 41, while Cole Brown scored 33 goals and added 37 assists for 70 points in 67 games.
“I know that they want to play a structured, disciplined hockey with some superstar-kind of offensive threats, so certainly we need to be aware of those guys on the ice,” noted Oulahen.
“Honestly, you don’t have the message of containing him,” Oulahen said of Lardis. “You have the message of trying to limit where he’s going to get the chances.
“He scored 71 goals in the regular season, but he leads the league in shots on net by over 50 on the next guy. Like, it’s crazy how much he shoots the puck, so it’s not to say that we’re not going to expect him shooting the puck. We’ve just got to make sure it’s not as many Grade As as probably he would like.
“The problem with Nick Lardis is he has a good supporting staff around him, so we can’t just focus in on one guy. They’ve got a couple of guys that are a hundred-point-plus, so I think that’s probably what frees him up sometimes, especially at home, so we’ve got to make sure we are aware when those guys are on the ice.”
Staying out of the penalty box will be important, as the Brantford power play led the OHL with an effectiveness of 28.2 percent, while the penalty killers ranked fourth at 82.9 percent. The Battalion power play scored at 18.0 percent, 15th in the league, even as the penalty-killing units ranked sixth at 81.7 percent.
Ethan Procyszyn paced North Bay with a team-leading 34 goals and 30 assists for 64 points, while Jacob LeBlanc had 10 goals and a team-high 42 assists for 52 points, both in 68 games.
Shamar Moses scored 12 goals and earned 36 assists for 48 points in 61 games after an Oct. 10 trade from the Barrie Colts, and Jacob Therrien had 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points in 55 games.
In 45 games in goal, Mike McIvor went 22-17-3 with a 2.86 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage and three shutouts. Jack Lisson was 3-7-1 with a 4.29 GAA and an .875 save percentage.
McIvor took over from the injured Dom DiVincentiis in Game 2 of the first playoff round last year and went the rest of the way, winning 10 of 15 decisions as the Battalion took the Oshawa Generals to seven games in the conference final, the Troops’ third consecutive appearance in it.
“What Mike has learned last year is the routine at this time of year,” said Oulahen.
“He knows how to prepare himself. He knows, when you get a day in between games, what he needs to do. He knows what he needs to do on game day. He knows how to manage his body. He’s been through this grind and this type of playoff scenario, so huge to have that experience in him.”
Brantford goaltender Ryerson Leenders was 31-14-3 with a 3.11 GAA, a .910 save percentage and one shutout in 48 games. David Egorov, 13-5-2, registered a 2.97 GAA and a .906 save percentage in 24 games.
The series opener can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
