Battalion ready for road
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion opens its first multigame road trip of the Ontario Hockey League season when it visits the Windsor Spitfires at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
It’s the first of three games in an many days, with dates Friday night with the London Knights and Saturday with the Brantford Bulldogs.
Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Tuesday that the early-season trek is valuable in terms of team bonding, as always believed by Brian Kilrea, onetime general manager and coach of the Ottawa 67’s.
In the days when GMs negotiated schedules among themselves at a summer meeting, the legendary Kilrea was known to start the season with a three- or four-game road trip.
“He didn’t care about the wins and losses,” noted Oulahen. “He just wanted the team to get on the road and bond and be together and be on the bus and have meals and all that.”
The heavy schedule didn’t appear to faze Oulahen, who suggested the Troops, with a won-lost-extended record of 2-2-0 in the young season, are well built for it.
“It does suit our style well. We like to use the whole bench. Everybody can be involved in play. You’ve got to get off to a good start on Thursday, though, because of momentum. If you can play some good hockey, you can really roll that through the weekend, so that’s going to be the message here.”
In fact, the Battalion is in the midst of a four-game run of away dates, with Oulahen calling a 5-4 loss Saturday night to the host Soo Greyhounds a “winnable hockey game.”
“We’ve just got to clean up some of those bad mistakes and see where the goals are coming from. I think once we do that we’re going to move in the right direction for sure.”
Kam Hodgson, who scored two goals and earned an assist at Sault Ste. Marie, has a three-game goal-scoring streak during which he has four goals and one assist for five points. Hodgson, a Barrie native who turned 18 on April 2 and is in his first season in the league, was a sixth-round pick in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection after the first of three years with the Culver Military Academy of Culver, Ind.
“We’re not shocked, because, if you look at his pedigree, all he’s done is score goals his entire life, and you see why,” said Oulahen. “He shoots in the right areas. He’s always ready to shoot. He makes plays. He drives possession, so he’s having a good start here so far.”
Other Troops with three-game points streaks number Evgeny Dubrovtsev, Shamar Moses and Aaron Enright. Dubrovtsev’s run features three goals and one assist, while Moses has one goal and two assists and Enright three assists.
Overage goaltender Mike McIvor made his season debut against the Greyhounds after exiting concussion protocol.
“The best part of him is he’s feeling really good and he’s sharp, and I think he’s ready to rock here this season and I think he’s excited for this weekend,” said Oulahen.
The game at Windsor can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
