Troops net tie with Trout
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Dalyn Wakely scored three goals, including an empty-netter, to lead the North Bay Battalion to a 5-3 victory Friday night and into a tie with the Mississauga Steelheads atop the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division.
Anthony Romani contributed one goal and two assists and Wyatt Kennedy scored the winner for North Bay, which improved its won-lost-extended record to 14-10-5 for 33 points. Owen Van Steensel had three assists before 1,881 at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
Goaltender Charlie Robertson made 27 saves in a stellar performance, including a sprawling stop on a pointblank power-play shot by Zander Veccia in the latter half of the third period with the Battalion leading 4-3.
Luke Misa and Adam Zidlicky each had one goal and one assist for Mississauga, while Mason Zebeski also scored. Goaltender Ryerson Leenders made 26 saves for the Steelheads, 16-9-1 with three games in hand on North Bay.
It was the Battalion’s last game before goaltender Dom DiVincentiis and Ty Nelson were to report Sunday to the national junior team’s selection camp at Oakville, Ont., to attempt to qualify for the Canadian roster at the World Junior Championship scheduled Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 at Gothenburg, Sweden.
Zidlicky, who took a pass back against the flow from Porter Martone behind the net, put the puck inside the left post at 4:04 of the final frame to tie it 3-3, but Kennedy stepped in from the high slot and wired the disc past Leenders 26 seconds later. Defenceman Kennedy’s first goal of the season was unassisted.
Robertson stoned Martone in the eighth minute and the Troops killed a slashing call against Liam Arnsby at 12:39 before Wakely fired his 12th goal into the empty net from centre ice, assisted by Van Steensel, at 18:57.
The Battalion forged a 3-0 first-period lead, sparked by Wakely when he knocked the puck home from the left lip of the crease off a power-play scramble at 1:06. Justin Ertel and Romani had assists.
Romani scored his team-leading 23rd goal at 4:13 after Paul Christopoulos kept the puck in the zone at the right point and Van Steensel fed it into the mid slot while being dumped.
Wakely, deep on the right side, hesitated before making a pass and instead hoisted the disc behind Leenders on a backhander at 8:51. Romani and Van Steensel assisted.
Misa replied with the man advantage at 10:13, converting a backdoor play from the right side, and Zebeski pulled Mississauga within a goal at 2:37 of the middle period, driving to the net off the right wing and putting home a backhander. Zidlicky and Misa drew assists on Zebeski’s 10th goal.
Robertson made a sterling right-pad save against penalty killer Zidlicky with Jakub Fibigr serving a tripping call assessed at 11:16, and Ertel and Jacob Therrien had a two-on-one threat come to naught in the 18th minute.
The Battalion plays host to the Soo Greyhounds at 7 p.m. Wednesday on The Brick Teddy Bear Toss Night.
BATTALION BULLETS: It was the second of six meetings, after Mississauga won 7-6 at North Bay on Oct. 19. The next encounter is Jan. 11 at Memorial Gardens … Romani has a six-game points streak in which he has five goals and nine assists for 14 points … Nelson saw the end of a five-game points streak in which he had two goals and seven assists for nine points … The Battalion went 1-for-4 on the power play. Mississauga was 1-for-5 … Opening lines included Wakely centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Romani, Arnsby pivoting left winger Ertel and right winger Therrien and Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Carter Kostuch and right winger Brice Cooke. Dylan Richter centred left winger Stef Forgione and right winger Lirim Amidovski … Defence pairings had Trevor McDowell with Nelson, Brayden Turley with Christopoulos and Tyson Rismond with Kennedy … The Battalion was without Tnias Mathurin, Ihnat Pazii, Nolan Laird, Zach Wilson, Alex Cajkovic, Pasquale Zito and Mike McIvor … Cajkovic missed a second game with strep throat … Cooke made his first return to Mississauga since an Aug. 28 trade for a sixth-round pick in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection, while onetime free agent Forgione, who signed with the Battalion as a training camp invitee, returned after 13 games with the Steelheads in 2021-22. Both were in the starting lineup, but Forgione later left the game with an upper-body injury … Dave Lewis and Alex Ross were the referees.
