Oulahen gets CHL nod
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Coach Ryan Oulahen, newly named to another international posting, takes the North Bay Battalion on the road this week, starting a three-game stretch with a date at 7:05 p.m. Thursday against the Peterborough Petes.
Oulahen was named Wednesday as an assistant coach with the Canadian Hockey League team that will play in the inaugural CHL USA Prospects Challenge scheduled Nov. 26-27 at London and Oshawa.
Kris Mallette of the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets is the CHL squad’s head coach, supported by Oulahen and Gordie Dwyer of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan. All three directed Canada to a third straight gold medal at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament at Edmonton in August.
The American entry is the USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-18 Team. Both rosters will feature players who are first-time eligible for the National Hockey League Draft in 2025.
Oulahen has coached the Battalion since Dec. 10, 2019. Before that, he spent two-plus seasons as head coach of the Flint Firebirds following six seasons with the Troops as an assistant in both Brampton and North Bay.
On the international stage, Oulahen also was behind the bench at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2014 as an assistant with Canada Red, in 2015 as an assistant with Canada Black and in 2017 as head coach of Canada White. He also served as an assistant at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, winning gold.
The captain in his third and final season as a player with the Battalion, Oulahen was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the fifth round of what was then the NHL Entry Draft in 2003 and played four seasons with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
“We actually were texting a couple of weeks ago that it sounds like the band is going to get back together for one more encore,” Oulahen said of the CHL bench trio. “With those events you really develop a relationship and a bond with the group of guys in such a short amount of time, so that’s kind of cool for me to be able to go do it with them again.”
The Battalion visits the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night and the Ottawa 67’s on Saturday to complete the first of two sets of three games in as many days this season.
“You get on the bus,” Oulahen noted of the early-season bonding opportunity and test. “You’re having a lot of meals together. You get to be in the hotel room. It goes by fast. It’s a challenge.”
The Battalion has won both its games in the new season, having blanked Peterborough 4-0 at Memorial Gardens on Friday night as goaltender Mike McIvor provided 36 saves in his second OHL shutout. Rookie Charlie Larocque backstopped a 4-1 road win Saturday night over the Barrie Colts.
“I’m thrilled with our goaltending situation,” said Oulahen, who noted that Larocque joined the team last spring when McIvor took over for the injured Dom DiVincentiis in the second game of the opening playoff round against Kingston. “We got to see Charlie a lot last year, obviously, in playoffs, in practices and things like that, because he was with our team.
“I think that’s really helped him. He’s just comfortable. He’s been around the guys for, I don’t know what it was, almost a month and half last year in the playoff run and really seeing how things are. You just see his demeanour. It’s impressive. He made some unbelievable plays with the puck in Barrie, and I look back and he’s just chillin’ back there.”
A total of five Battalion newcomers, including Larocque, made their OHL debuts in one of the first two games, and Aaron Enright is expected to follow on the road trip. Finnish import Natan Teshome earned his first point with an assist on overager Andrew LeBlanc’s shorthanded first-period goal against the Petes. It proved to be the winner.
The game at Peterborough can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
