Battalion embraces road test
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion hits the road for two games this weekend looking for better results than it’s enjoyed recently at home.
That’s hardly what a team that started the Ontario Hockey League season with four straight home wins and six consecutive road losses might have expected.
The Battalion lost 4-2 Sunday to the visiting Val-d’Or Foreurs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League after a 5-4 overtime setback Thursday night to the touring London Knights. With home-ice defeats at the hands of the Sudbury Wolves on Oct. 22 and Niagara IceDogs on Oct. 18, the Troops are 0-3-1 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens since a 3-1 victory over the Peterborough Petes on Thanksgiving Day.
North Bay, which posted road wins against Sudbury on Oct. 23, the Barrie Colts on Oct. 24 and Niagara last Friday night, now is 3-6-0 off the bus.
But with visits to the Kitchener Rangers, reigning Memorial Cup champions, at 7 p.m. Friday and the Guelph Storm, loaded up to host the tournament this season, on Saturday, the schedule isn’t any easier.
With one-quarter of its schedule in the books, the Battalion has a won-lost-extended record of 7-9-1 for 15 points, third in the Central Division. Kitchener is 8-6-3 for 19 points, third in the Midwest Division, after a 3-2 home-ice loss Tuesday night to division- and Western Conference-leading Guelph before the Erie Otters’ visit Wednesday night to the Soo Greyhounds.
“We haven’t had success in the Kitchener building,” Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen acknowledged Wednesday. “That’s something that’s on our minds, and we’ve been talking about it, that we want to right that ship a little bit here and (have) an opportunity to do that first thing on Friday, and then we’ll see what happens turning the page to the game on Saturday.”
In 11 games at Kitchener since relocation from Brampton for the 2013-14 season, the Battalion is 2-7-2, the more recent win a 5-1 decision Feb. 27, 2015. Nick Paul scored two goals, including the first-period winner and a shorthanded empty-netter at 13:11 of the third period, and added two assists, while goaltender Jake Kment made 15 saves.
The next two seasons saw the Troops defeated via shootout, meaning the last seven trips to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium have resulted in regulation losses. The 2020-21 season was cancelled because of covid, and the teams didn’t meet during the 2021-22 campaign’s non-traditional schedule.
The schedule’s recent demands have been daunting, with Val-d’Or, 14-1-1 for 29 points atop the QMJHL’s Western Conference and the league, just named No. 1 in the Canadian Hockey League Top 10 rankings.
But Oulahen took positives from his charges’ play.
“I would say that we’re pretty happy overall with the way we played last weekend. Three tough games, two top high-end opponents, and to come out of that .500 and had a chance to win all three games, so I think (we’re) looking pretty positively at the games that we’re building here.
“I think (there’s) the belief in our team that we’re building, and we’re just looking forward now to the challenge of getting on the road this weekend and trying to have two really good games.”
Oulahen pointed to quicker starts being key to improved road results.
“I think maybe, if there’s one thing in the games that we have had success, it’s us getting off to a better start. It’s not chasing the game. When you see the mistakes that happen or those blunders, it’s because we’re behind a little bit.”
Evgeny Dubrovtsev leads the Troops in scoring with a team-best 14 goals and four assists for 18 points in 17 games, but the hottest hands belong to Arseny Pronin, who has a 10-game points streak in which he’s generated nine goals and five assists for 14 points. After earning two assists in the first seven games, the Belarusian has amassed all his other points in the last 10 outings while scoring one goal in each of the last five.
“They’ve been huge,” Oulahen said of the two imports after the Val-d’Or game. “This is what you expect and you hope for from those guys. The pedigree that they had, last year they were both kind of getting situated, especially Geno, just being a 17-year-old really for the whole year. We asked a lot of them.
“Now this year they’re starting to realize what it’s like to become the guys, so to speak.”
The game at Kitchener can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
