Soo opens three in three
NORTH BAY, Ont. — With 22 games, or about a third of its 68-game schedule left, the North Bay Battalion is getting closer to crunch time in its battle for an Ontario Hockey League playoff berth.
North Bay has a won-lost-extended record of 18-25-3 for 39 points, fifth in the Central Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the East Division’s Ottawa 67’s before their home date Wednesday night with the Oshawa Generals. The Battalion has two games in hand on Ottawa before that game.
The Battalion plays host to the Soo Greyhounds at 7 p.m. Thursday in the first of three games in as many nights against the bottom three teams in the Western Conference. Soo, 0-3-1 in its last four games, is 19-27-2 for 40 points, fifth in the West Division, eighth in the conference and occupying its last postseason berth.
The Troops visit the Guelph Storm on Friday night and the Owen Sound Attack on Saturday night to complete weekend play. Guelph, with 35 points, and Owen Sound, with 38, are 10th and ninth respectively in their conference.
“Typically, I like talking about just the next game, but the common thread for this one here is everybody’s in the same type of scenario,” Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday. “Guys are desperate, fighting for points. We’re in that scenario.
“It’s the way it is, and it’s kind of the chunk of games that we’ve got coming up here in the next few weeks and, to boot, a ton of hockey. So we’re going to have to really play our best hockey right here and starting tomorrow night.”
The Battalion got third-period goals from Nick Wellenreiter and Lirim Amidovski to erase a two-goal deficit and defeated the visiting Niagara IceDogs 4-3 Sunday, with Wellenreiter scoring the only goal of a shootout.
“It probably wasn’t the cleanest game that we’ve had in the last month or so, but certainly we were to generate some offence, generate some chances, and got to our game there in the third period,” noted Oulahen.
Ethan Procyszyn, who tops the Battalion offence with a team-leading 26 goals and 18 assists for 44 points, was tied with Nick Lardis of the Brantford Bulldogs with a league-best 15 power-play goals before Brantford’s home game Wednesday night against the Sudbury Wolves.
Jacob LeBlanc has six goals and a team-high 34 assists for 40 points in 46 games, while Shamar Moses has scored 10 goals and earned 27 assists for 37 points in 39 games since an Oct. 10 trade from the Barrie Colts. Jacob Therrien has seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 35 games.
Marco Mignosa paces Greyhounds scoring with 19 goals and a team-leading 29 assists for 48 points in 38 games, and Justin Cloutier has a team-high 23 goals and 17 assists for 40 points in 48 games. Brady Martin has scored 19 goals and added 21 assists for 40 points in 38 games, while Noel Nordh has 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points in 27 games.
“We know each other really well in terms of how you want our teams to play, so that goes into it a little bit,” Oulahen said of facing Soo, coached by onetime Battalion assistant John Dean.
“He’s going to have them jumping and coming out hard. He always does in this building. He’s obviously a former Centennial as well and has family and friends in this area, so I would expect them to be ready for him.”
The Soo game features CMHA Talk Today presented by Syngenta and The Grain Farmers of Ontario.
