Troops back against Fronts
NORTH BAY, Ont. — The North Bay Battalion gets a home-ice rematch with the Kingston Frontenacs at 7 p.m. Thursday as the Troops stand on the verge of clinching a spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
The Battalion, coming off two wins on a three-game eastern road trip, will look to avenge the sole setback, a 5-1 loss to Kingston last Friday night. It was sandwiched by a 5-4 victory Thursday night over the Peterborough Petes and a 4-2 verdict Sunday against the Ottawa 67’s.
North Bay has a won-lost-extended record of 31-23-3 for 65 points, second in the Central Division and fifth in the conference, four points behind fourth-place Peterborough with each team having 11 games left to play. Kingston is 26-26-5 for 57 points, fourth in the East Division and seventh in the conference.
In the competition for home ice in a potential first-round playoff matchup, the Battalion has eight home games left, while the Petes have three.
Any point gained by the Battalion or lost by the Brampton Steelheads would clinch a best-of-seven quarterfinal berth for the Troops. Brampton was to visit the Brantford Bulldogs on Wednesday night.
Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen tipped his cap to Kingston on Wednesday, calling the Frontenacs “a real disciplined, structured team.”
“They have depth through their lineup, and probably the strength of their group is the back end, so we learned that the hard way. We’re going to have to find ways to generate a little bit more, get on the inside, get on all those things that we try to talk about and for sure get off to a better start against them because, once we got behind, they were able to get in their defensive structure, and I thought we had a hard time getting through that.”
Oulahen said he was happy with the Troops’ performance on their last multigame road trip of the schedule.
“When you go on that road trip and you can get two out of three, you feel good about yourself. Peterborough and Ottawa are among the better home teams, especially in our conference.”
At Ottawa, Ryder Carey and Lirim Amidovski scored third-period goals to give the Battalion the win after it killed a pair of double minors for high-sticking in the middle frame, a special-teams showing that Oulahen suggested was the difference in the game. Goaltender Jack Lisson stopped eight shots in that eight minutes of shorthanded time.
“He was outstanding; he absolutely was,” said Oulahen. “He was so on it, and I think that’s a huge tell for a really, really good goaltender, being able to reset and back it up.
“We had the day off in between on Saturday. We were actually able to jump on the ice as a team and you just knew watching him, you can see the preparation, that, hey, he’s going to have a game here on Sunday. And in those moments, especially in the power plays in the second period, we needed him bigtime, and he was right there and had an outstanding effort.”
In 33 games this season, Lisson is 20-9-2 with a 2.50 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. He made 41 saves at Ottawa as the Battalion won for the fifth time in six games.
Gavin Zepp backed up Lisson on the trip as Cole Vreugdenhil played three away games with the Powassan Voodoos of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, winning two and posting a GAA of 1.35 and a save percentage of .952 in being named one of the junior A circuit’s players of the week.
To complete play this week, North Bay visits the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night and plays host to the Niagara IceDogs on Sunday.
The Kingston game marks Hockey Fights Cancer Night presented by Scotiabank.
