Combatants ready to go
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion is ready and eager to get its Ontario Hockey League playoff series against the Ottawa 67’s started, coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday.
“Regular season is over, and it’s a new task here for playoffs, and we’re really looking forward to getting at this as a group,” Oulahen said Wednesday as the Battalion prepared for the Memorial Gardens opener of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“We feel like the last couple of months have been long for us, and we’re really looking forward to getting started.”
North Bay captured the Central Division title with a won-lost-extended record of 43-18-7 for 93 points, second in the conference to the Hamilton Bulldogs. Ottawa was 28-31-9 for 65 points, fourth in the East Division and seventh in the conference.
“We have a lot of respect for this team, this organization,” Oulahen said of the 67’s, who are directed by Dave Cameron. “They’re a really hardworking bunch. They play the game the right way. They’re extremely well coached and disciplined and structured.
“They’re going to be a tough matchup, and you know all of our games this year, even going back to exhibition, have been very close, very tight, and I expect it to be the same way.”
Cameron, who ranks 15th on the career wins list among OHL coaches with 389, led the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for two seasons before separate four-year terms with the Toronto and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors. He also was head coach of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators for one-plus seasons.
The Battalion, which plays host to Game 2 at 7 p.m. Saturday, went 3-2-1 against Ottawa in the season series, which numbered six games instead of the customary four because of the covid-altered schedule.
“I think the big thing for us is we’ve really tried to establish our habits, our routine, from Day 1 this year,” said Oulahen, whose Troops remained at No. 8 in the Canadian Hockey League Top 10 rankings this week.
“The big thing we’ve been stressing is we don’t have to change anything. We’re not going to change something, whether it’s our systems, our structure, how we prepare our group. It’s all going to remain the same. We know there are going to be different emotions, but we’ve got to try to level that out as best as possible.”
The mental aspect of embarking on the postseason may be especially important this year, as the abandonment of the 2019-20 season and the cancellation of the 2020-21 campaign mean there haven’t been OHL playoff games since 2019.
Only three members of each team have skated in the postseason.
For the Troops, Mitchell Russell has 16 playoff games over two years and Brandon Coe has eight games over two springs. Grayson Ladd has six games in one postseason with the Windsor Spitfires, and that was in 2018.
Ottawa’s playoff veterans are Adam Varga with eight games over two years, Alex Johnston with 11 games and Cameron Tolnai with four, both of them from one season.
That amounts to 30 games for the Battalion and 23 for Ottawa.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to experience it,” Oulahen said of the playoff atmosphere. “You’ve got to go out, you’ve got to relish the challenge, love the moment, love the emotions, and just go at it like that.”
The third and fourth games are scheduled Monday and Wednesday nights at Ottawa.
The series opener features Playoff Rally Towel Night, with towels awarded to the first 2,500 fans, who are encouraged to bring them to future games to win prizes from rally towel sponsors.
