Western foes standard fare for Troops
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion, fresh off a successful two-game road trip, plays host to the London Knights, reigning Memorial Cup champions, in Ontario Hockey League action at 7 p.m. Thursday.
London is the third straight Western Conference opponent for the Battalion, which lost 5-4 in overtime Saturday night to the Windsor Spitfires before winning 6-4 Sunday over the Sarnia Sting.
“I was pretty happy with our guys,” Battalion coach Stan Butler said Wednesday. “They’re two tough buildings. Windsor’s lost only one game all season at home and Sarnia hadn’t lost any in regulation, so for the guys to go in there and play that well was definitely a positive step for our hockey team.”
The Troops fell behind 2-0 in both games before scoring the next two goals in the first period of each to pull even, then gave up the fifth goal in both as they garnered three of a possible four points on the trip, moving their won-lost-extended record to 8-6-1 for 17 points, tied with the Sudbury Wolves atop the Central Division.
“I think there are two words to describe it,” Butler said in explaining the Battalion’s resilience. “The first one is ‘fear.’ They know if they don’t play well it’s not going to be great for them, and the second one is ‘pride.’ I think the one thing we’ve done since we’ve moved to North Bay here with our players is developed a real sense of pride that they have a very good hockey team and we’re expected to do well up here. We owe that to our fans and to our teammates as well.”
London, 8-2-3 for 19 points and third place in the Midwest Division, makes its only regular-season visit to Memorial Gardens. It’s a date Butler suggested means a lot to Adam Dennis, the Troops’ first-year assistant coach.
“I think he’s been motivated for this game for a long time, having been the goalie when they won the Memorial Cup, on maybe one of the best junior teams ever, in 2005.”
The Knights are led offensively by centre Cliff Pu, who has eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points in 11 games, and left winger Max Jones, who’s scored five goals and earned 11 assists for 16 points in eight games.
The Battalion counters with top-scoring centre Brett McKenzie, with 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points in 14 games, and right winger Steve Harland, with five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 15 games.
Both right winger Zach Poirier and defenceman Adam Thilander have three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 15 games. Centre Brett Hargrave has nine goals for as many points in 15 games, and rearguard Cam Dineen has five goals and four assists for nine points in 14 games.
“They’re offensively gifted defencemen, so you don’t try to calm that down,” Butler said of Thilander and Dineen. “I think Brady Lyle, as he gets older, will get into that group as well. But the reality is you’ve still got to defend.
“In the (National Hockey League), if you have the puck 60 percent of the time, that means that 40 percent of the time you don’t have possession and you’re defending, so I think for a lot of young guys they’ve got to realize that they’ve got to defend well. They’ve got to have a quick stick. You can’t get beat one-on-one off the rush, and you’ve got to be good down low.
“They’re skills that I think Cam’s really, really improved on from last year, and it’s stuff that Adam’s got to learn if he wants to play at the next level.”
Butler suggested Lyle will provide comparable offence in time.
“I think he’s just got to allow his offensive instincts to take over. I think sometimes he over-analyses things. There are times where, and it doesn’t come from us as a coaching staff, he tries to do things that are not high-percentage plays.
“I think the biggest part of his game that’s got to get better — and in fairness to him, he’s only 17 — is his play away from the puck. He’s got to defend in his own end; he’s got to be first to pucks in the corner and things like that.”
In London’s lone visit to North Bay last season, on Dec. 13, the Battalion won 7-2 in a fractious affair. Returning players who scored goals were left winger Daniil Vertiy, Dineen with the winner, McKenzie and Hargrave.
The Battalion completes action this week by visiting the Niagara IceDogs on Friday night and hosting the Mississauga Steelheads on Sunday.
