Bulldogs outlast Battalion
BRANTFORD, Ont. — Owen Protz scored at 18:21 of the third period to lift the Brantford Bulldogs to a 6-5 victory Friday night over the North Bay Battalion, which will finish fifth in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference behind the Peterborough Petes.
North Bay has a won-lost-extended record of 37-26-4 for 78 points, second in the Central Division, while Peterborough moved to 82 points for third place in the East Division and clinched fourth in the conference with a 4-2 road win over the Kingston Frontenacs.
The Battalion and Petes will open a best-of-seven conference quarterfinal next week at Peterborough after each plays a final regular-season game.
Jake O’Brien scored two goals and added two assists for the Bulldogs, who got one goal and three assists from Adam Benak. Adam Jiricek and Marek Vanacker each had one goal and one assist, and goaltender David Egorov contributed 37 saves.
Brantford, 48-9-10 for 106 points in the East, clinched the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the OHL’s regular-season champions.
Arseny Pronin, Evgeny Dubrovtsev and Nick Wellenreiter each had one goal and one assist for North Bay, while Kaden Pitre and Cam Warren also scored. Goaltender Jack Lisson made 27 saves before 3,207 at the TD Civic Centre.
The Battalion trailed 4-2 at the second intermission, but Warren and Dubrovtsev scored 44 seconds apart early in the third period to tie it. Warren struck for his sixth goal of the season from the left circle on the power play at 3:44, assisted by Parker Vaughan and Kent Greer, and Dubrovtsev beat Egorov from deep in the right circle for his 13th goal, assisted by Pronin.
O’Brien scored his 28th goal with the man advantage at 7:03 before Wellenreiter replied at 17:19, tipping an Adrian Manzo drive in the slot, with Ethan Procyszyn also assisting on Wellenreiter’s 23rd goal.
Defenceman Protz’s fifth goal, a wrister from the high slot, then settled the issue 1:02 later.
After the teams battled to a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes, O’Brien connected on the power play from the mid slot at 4:25 of the middle period. Vanacker and Caleb Malhotra assisted.
Pitre answered at 11:19, advancing to the top of the right circle and snapping the puck low to the far side. Wellenreiter and Manzo assisted on the 18th goal for Pitre, his 13th in 37 games since a trade from the Flint Firebirds.
Vanacker took a Benak pass from the end boards and quickly converted from the goalmouth at 14:00. Zackary Sandhu had the second assist on Vanacker’s league-leading 47th goal.
The falling Benak made it 4-2 at 19:21 when he shoveled the puck toward the net and had it deflect off the skate of Hayden Barch. Jiricek drew the other assist on Benak’s 28th goal.
Jiricek scored on the power play at 9:19 of the first period. Malhotra fired a cross-ice pass to Jiricek deep in the left circle for a one-timer on the backdoor play. Benak had the other assist on defenceman Jiricek’s 19th goal.
Pronin tied it at 18:54 with his seventh goal. Ryder Carey fed a cross-zone pass to the Belarusian import at the top of the left circle for a wrister. Dubrovtsev also assisted.
The Battalion ends the regular season by playing host to the Sudbury Wolves at 2 p.m. Sunday on Kal Tire Fan Appreciation Day.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion went 2-2-0 in the season series. Brantford won 7-2 at home Dec. 6 before the Troops posted a pair of overtime wins at North Bay, 5-4 on Jan. 22 and 3-2 on March 12 … Ryder Cali saw the end of a seven-game points streak in which he had four goals and six assists for 10 points … Lirim Amidovski topped the Troops with seven shots on goal, while Vanacker led the Bulldogs with seven … The Battalion went 1-for-3 on the power play. Brantford was 3-for-4 … Opening lines featured Procyszyn centring left winger Pitre and right winger Wellenreiter, Cali pivoting left winger Sebastien Gervais and right winger Amidovski and Warren centring left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Vaughan. Dubrovtsev centred left winger Pronin and right winger Carey … Defence pairings were Bronson Ride with Barch, Carter Kunopaski with Greer and Jonathan Kapageridis with Manzo … Mike McIvor, who posted a 23-save shutout Thursday night in a 7-0 home-ice win over the Brampton Steelheads in his return from an extended injury absence, backed up Lisson … The Battalion was without Aaron Enright, Brandt Harper, Alexander Karmanov and Shamar Moses … Among the missing for Brantford were Jett Luchanko and Dylan Tsherna … O’Brien set a Bulldogs club record covering both the Hamilton and Brantford years with 255 points, surpassing Patrick Thomas. In 180 games, O’Brien has 73 goals and 182 assists. Thomas had 253 points in as many games.
