Battalion firepower buries Peterborough
NORTH BAY, Ont. – The North Bay Battalion continued to display its newly found offensive prowess in a 9-3 conquest Sunday of the Peterborough Petes, the Troops’ fourth straight Ontario Hockey League victory.
Mike Amadio and Mathew Santos each provided two goals and one assist, Max Kislinger scored two goals, Brett Hargrave had one goal and one assist and Zach Poirier and Maurizio Colella also scored for North Bay, which got 23 saves and an assist from goaltender Jake Smith.
A crowd of 3,486 saw the Battalion move its won-lost-extended record to 30-18-8 for 68 points, second in the Central Division and third in the Eastern Conference. The Troops have scored 26 goals in their last four games, including a 3-2 road win Monday over the Ottawa 67’s, a 9-1 rout of the visiting Sudbury Wolves on Thursday night and a 5-1 decision Friday night over the host Mississauga Steelheads.
Greg Betzold and Adam Timleck each had one goal and one assist and Eric Cornel the other goal for Peterborough. Goaltender Dylan Wells faced 37 shots for the Petes, 28-23-6 for 62 points, second in the East Division and tied with Mississauga for fourth place in the conference.
“We’re really sharp around the other team’s net right now,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “Peterborough came in here on a four-game winning streak. They’re a big, strong team and they were a good test for us. I thought we got good balance right through our whole lineup. Our guys are playing a 200-foot game, and they’re getting good results.”
Hargrave, who has scored in each of the last three games, connected at 5:40 of the first period, wristing the puck under Wells’s blocker off a right-wing rush, before Amadio struck at 13:24, spinning off a faceoff against Hunter Garlent and beating Wells high to the stick side.
Betzold replied at 16:35 with his team-leading 35th goal of the season when he finished a two-on-one break by chipping the rebound of a Timleck shot into the top corner.
Poirier scored at 6:22 of the second period, backhanding the puck from the right-wing circle, and Cornel countered at 8:07 when he redirected Dominik Masin’s shot from the blue line. Garlent also assisted.
The Troops, who received a two-man advantage scheduled for 26 seconds when Brandon Prophet, on a delay-of-game call, joined Matt Spencer in the penalty box, converted twice.
Amadio scored what proved to be the winner at 14:04, two seconds before Spencer was due to be released, stalking Wells from the left circle and wiring the puck home. Kyle Wood and Smith assisted on Amadio’s 42nd goal, the most by a Battalion player in a season since the move to North Bay in 2013.
Colella then tipped Cam Dineen’s shot from the blue line past Wells at 15:32. It was Colella’s seventh goal of the season and fourth since a trade from the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Timleck pulled the Petes within 5-3 at 16:59, burying the rebound of a Jonathan Ang shot from deep in the left circle, but the Battalion blew the game open with four third-period goals.
Kislinger struck at 1:43, firing a Wood feed off the right post from the high slot, and Santos deflected home a Mark Shoemaker drive from the blue line at 5:53.
Kislinger found himself alone in front at 7:18 and put a Steve Harland feed over Wells’s right shoulder, and Prophet turned over the puck before Santos fired it past Wells at 14:55. Amadio received the lone assist on Santos’s 24th goal.
The Battalion plays host to Hamilton at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
BATTALION BULLETS: Amadio, on an 11-game points streak during which he has 14 goals and eight assists for 22 points, has 12 goals in the last five games. He’s scored 84 career goals, tied with Sam Carrick for eighth place on the franchise list. Amadio has 12 winning goals, tied with Adam Henrich and Chris Rowan for seventh all-time … Santos has a career-high 11-game points streak in which he has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points … Harland, who recorded two assists, has a six-game points streak during which he has two goals and seven helpers for nine points … Wood’s two assists gave him seven in a four-game points run … Smith’s assist was his third of the season … The Battalion went 2-for-5 on the power play. Peterborough was 0-for-2 … Opening lines featured Amadio centring left winger Colella and right winger Santos, Brett McKenzie pivoting left winger David Sherman and Poirier on right wing and Hargrave centring left winger Daniil Vertiy and right winger Harland. Kyle Potts centred left winger Kislinger and right winger Justin Brazeau … Battalion scratches were Jake Ramalho, Mike Baird and Jacob Ball … Vertiy left the game midway in the first period with a knee injury and was to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging test … Garlent has a six-game assists streak during which he has eight assists.
