Battalion rebounds to tie up series
GUELPH, Ont. – Barclay Goodrow leads the Ontario Hockey League playoffs with four game-winning goals. He scored his biggest Friday night.
Goodrow struck at 2:30 of overtime to lift the North Bay Battalion to a 4-3 victory over the Guelph Storm, tying their best-of-seven OHL Championship Series at one game apiece. Guelph won the opener 3-2 in overtime here Thursday night.
The Troops, who battled back from a 2-0 first-period deficit, had four of five shots in the extra frame, and Goodrow ended it with his league-leading 12th postseason goal, taking a Ben Thomson pass and drilling the puck off the left post.
“Thomson made a good pass to me in the high slot,” said Goodrow, who leads the Battalion in playoff scoring with 22 points. “I just wanted to get it on net, and it found a way through.”
The series for the J. Ross Robertson Cup and a berth in the Memorial Cup tournament now moves to North Bay, with the third game scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday and the fourth for Wednesday night.
Nick Paul had one goal and one assist and Marcus McIvor and Mathew Santos also scored for the Eastern Conference champion Battalion, which got two assists from Thomson and 21 saves from goaltender Jake Smith.
Robby Fabbri had two goals and Steven Trojanovic one for Guelph, which won the Western Conference title. Goaltender Justin Nichols faced 41 shots before a crowd of 4,963 at the Sleeman Centre.
“The results were better for us tonight,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler. “We came to the final because we believe in our team, and we think we have as good a chance to win as they do. We lost a tough game last night. All season this team has shown a lot of character. They could have folded tonight. It’s a tough building and a great team they’re playing, and they chose to go the other way. As a result, we’re going home 1-1.”
Guelph coach Scott Walker praised the Battalion effort.
“You have to give them a lot of credit. They came out and played harder than we did. There’s been a lot said about us being a high-powered offensive team and that North Bay didn’t have a chance. We knew they’d be a heck of an opponent, and they’ve proven to be.”
The Troops trailed 3-2 through 40 minutes, but Paul got the equalizer on the power play at 14:32 of the third period, stepping off the boards and firing a shot from the top of the right-wing circle that eluded Nichols, who was screened by Thomson. The goal, assisted by Brenden Miller and Thomson, was Paul’s 10th.
The Battalion outshot Guelph 12-6 in the period, but Nichols was sharp, making saves against Jamie Lewis and Dylan Blujus and holding ground as Connor Jarvis crossed the top of the crease in the 18th minute. Smith got his right pad on a Kerby Rychel shot in the seventh minute and parried a Tyler Bertuzzi offering with the blocker in the 15th.
Defenceman Trojanovic opened the scoring at 1:16 of the first period when his shot from the right circle hit Smith high in the chest and rolled over his shoulder into the net.
Fabbri made it 2-0 at 11:56. Zack Mitchell forced a Blujus turnover at the blue line and fed the disc to Rychel, who dished it to Fabbri. His pass attempt at the lip of the crease hit the stick of a diving McIvor and rolled over the goal line.
McIvor replied on the power play at 16:01 as his low shot from the right point beat a screened Nichols. Mike Amadio and Blujus collected assists on defenceman McIvor’s third goal.
Nichols turned aside chances by Matt MacLeod, Thomson and Riley Bruce, while Lewis had a fine scoring chance in the 15th minute but lost control of the puck as he cruised across the goalmouth. Alex Henriksson fired a shot off the crossbar in the ninth minute.
Smith foiled Scott Kosmachuk from the high slot in the ninth minute, sprawled to deny Brock McGinn at the right post in the 15th and robbed Fabbri with the glove in close in the 18th.
Diligent work by Lewis, Santos and Jarvis led to the tying goal at 9:17 of the second period. Seconds after Lewis narrowly missed tucking a rolling puck inside the left post, he occupied a defender behind the goal line and got the puck to Santos, who backhanded his own rebound past a fallen Nicholls. It was Santos’s first career playoff goal.
Fabbri gave Guelph a 3-2 lead at 15:57, capitalizing on a Kyle Wood turnover. Fabbri left the puck for Mitchell, who sent a pass between his legs to Fabbri, and he snapped the rubber past a screened Smith from the left circle.
The Troops outshot the Storm 14-6 in the period, forcing Nichols to make stops on Goodrow, Thomson and Henriksson, who had a chance in the ninth minute and then tested the goaltender from the left circle on the power play in the final seconds.
Miller contributed two key blocks in the Battalion zone, taking a Mitchell drive off the high chest in the ninth minute and getting the right arm in front of a Bertuzzi shot in close in the 13th.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 8-17 in playoff overtime, including 4-9 on the road. The overtime win was the first for the Troops in postseason play since a 4-3 double-overtime verdict over the host Sudbury Wolves on March 28, 2012, in the fourth and final game of a conference quarterfinal. The Battalion had lost four subsequent overtime contests … Miller leads OHL defencemen in playoff scoring with three goals and 14 assists for 17 points, a franchise record for a rearguard … North Bay went 2-for-5 on the power play. Guelph was 0-for-2 … MacLeod’s 42nd playoff game moved him into sole possession of second place on the franchise’s career list, behind Goodrow at 47 … Opening line combinations included Paul centring left winger Thomson and right winger Goodrow, Amadio pivoting left winger Vincent Praplan and right winger MacLeod and Brett McKenzie centring left winger Zach Bratina and right winger Henriksson. Lewis centred left winger Jarvis and right winger Santos … The Battalion was without Evan Cormier, Kyle Locke, Shawn Tessier, Mike Baird, Jared Steege and Calvin Gomes … Guelph again scratched Adam Craievich, Marc Stevens and Garrett McFadden … The game was telecast nationally on Rogers Sportsnet, which also is to show Game 5 at Guelph next Friday night … The last OHL final in which the first two games went to overtime was the 2006 series, when the Peterborough Petes swept the London Knights … The referees were Mike Cairns and Kendrick Nicholson.
