Playoff advantage on line
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion and Peterborough Petes are set to battle into the final week of the Ontario Hockey League regular season to decide which gets home-ice advantage in their impending Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
North Bay has a won-lost-extended record of 36-25-4 for 76 points, second in the Central Division and fifth in the conference. The Brampton Steelheads, who defeated the visiting Sudbury Wolves 6-3 in a Tuesday matinee, visit Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens at 7 p.m. Thursday to get the Troops started.
Peterborough is 37-24-4 for 78 points, third in the East Division and fourth in the conference. The Petes play host to the Barrie Colts on Thursday night before hitting the road against the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night and the Oshawa Generals on Sunday night.
The Battalion visits the Brantford Bulldogs on Friday night and plays host to Sudbury on Sunday.
While North Bay has two fewer points than the Petes, the Troops actually are three points behind where they need to be. Despite having won three of four meetings with Peterborough, the Battalion has to finish with more points, as the first tiebreaker is regulation and overtime wins, discounting victories via shootout, and the Petes hold an insurmountable lead of 35-31.
“If we want to have a chance at fourth, then as we go they’re all going to be must-wins here,” Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday.
“We’re going to have to attack tomorrow first, before we even think about Friday and before we even think about Sunday. I think that’s the mentality having it that way. We’ve been in situations where you clinched a division and there’s not much changing in a couple of weeks, and sometimes we find that you can lose your game a little bit, where I like the fact that we’re still fighting for something here and we can keep pushing.”
Oulahen, whose Troops lost 4-3 in overtime last Sunday to the visiting Petes, didn’t dismiss the Steelheads, who are 18-38-9 for 45 points, fifth in the Central and ninth in the conference.
“I just watched them play Sudbury yesterday, and the work ethic, the compete, the traffic around the net, there’s a lot of things that they do that are difficult to go against. So you can’t take any team lightly, especially teams that are going to play free. They’re going to play with no pressure, so you’ve got to be worried about that and fear them as dangerous.”
While blueliners Brandt Harper and Aaron Enright still need time to recover from injuries, Oulahen noted, goaltender Mike McIvor, who hasn’t played since a 4-2 home-ice win Jan. 8 over the Ottawa 67’s, looks ready to return.
“He’s feeling good. He’s feeling healthy. There’s no reason not to get him up to game speed, and I think that’s going to be the plan here this weekend, to get some action for Mikey.”
Ethan Procyszyn paces the Battalion offence with a team-leading 31 goals and 26 assists for 57 points in 63 games, while Nick Wellenreiter has 21 goals and a team-high 30 assists for 51 points in 65 games.
While both were held without a point Sunday, Procyszyn has scored 13 goals and added 10 assists for 23 points in the last 15 games, and Wellenreiter has recorded seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in the last 20 games.
Lirim Amidovski ranks third with 46 points from 25 goals and 21 assists in 62 games. Kaden Pitre, Ryder Cali and Evgeny Dubrovtsev have 34 points apiece for the Troops, with Pitre scoring 12 goals and adding 22 assists in 35 games since a trade from the Flint Firebirds. Cali has 14 goals and 20 assists in 44 games, while Dubrovtsev, who turned 18 Wednesday, has 11 goals and 23 assists in 65 games.
Kieran Witkowski leads the Steelheads with 30 points from 11 goals and a team-high 19 assists in 59 games.
The Brampton game features Player Awards Night presented by Subaru of North Bay.
