Battalion road show produces 3-0 win
OWEN SOUND, Ont. – Evan Cormier made 30 saves for his first Ontario Hockey League shutout, backstopping the North Bay Battalion to a 3-0 victory Saturday night over the Owen Sound Attack.
Kyle Wood, Mike Baird and Mike Amadio, into an empty net, scored a goal apiece and Nick Paul had two assists for North Bay, which played a solid road game to move its won-lost-extended record to 13-5-5 for 31 points, first in the Central Division.
Owen Sound, which lost a third straight game, is 12-8-5 for 29 points, tied with the Guelph Storm for fourth place in the Midwest Division. Goaltender Michael McNiven faced 23 shots before a crowd of 2,957.
“It’s huge,” said rookie Cormier, who made his fifth start of the season. “I’ve been dreaming about getting my first shutout for a long time, and I’m glad to get it off my back. It feels great.”
Cormier said a talk Friday with goaltending coach Rob Beatty paid dividends.
“It’s all about working hard in practice. He came up yesterday and gave me some tips and told me to relax and keep everything under control and stay positive with the guys. It worked out tonight the way we wanted.”
Wood opened the scoring eight seconds into a two-man advantage, hammering a shot from the top of the left-wing circle that beat McNiven low to the stick side at 4:42 of the second period. Brenden Miller and Paul assisted on Wood’s seventh goal of the season. It was his sixth power-play goal, tops among OHL defencemen.
Each team had eight shots in the period. McNiven gloved a Paul drive from deep off the right wing in the sixth minute and sprawled to stop a Ray Huether shot from the lip of the crease in the 16th. Cormier deftly denied a Daniel Milne offering from the slot and fended off Jaden Lindo as he swiped at the rebound in the 13th minute.
Baird scored 27 seconds into the third period. Huether missed the net wide right, and the puck bounced off the end boards to Baird, who tucked it inside the right post.
Rookie McNiven, who suffered his first loss in six decisions this season, first went to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:55 left to play, and Amadio’s ninth goal, into the empty net at 18:29, finished the scoring.
Cormier, who faced 16 shots in the period, was especially sharp in finding a Zach Nastasiuk shot through traffic, making back-to-back saves on Justin Brack and turning aside chances by Tyler MacArthur, Jonah Gadjovich and Jeffrey Gilligan.
The Troops outshot the Attack 8-6 in the first period, but Owen Sound, which enjoyed the only two power plays, tested Cormier several times. He foiled Gadjovich at the lip of the crease, stopped Keenan Reynolds at the left post and got the glove on a Gilligan shot from the deep slot.
The Battalion hosts the Niagara IceDogs at 3 p.m. Sunday, one hour later than the standard Sunday start time.
BATTALION BULLETS: After three appearances with the Battalion last season, Cormier, 17, made his first career start Oct. 9 at home against Owen Sound, which won 3-2 in overtime. He has a 2-1-1 record this season … Jake Smith has posted the Battalion’s other two shutouts … Miller is tied with Rostislav Klesla for fourth place in career scoring by Battalion defencemen with 26 goals and 73 assists for 99 points. Miller recorded his 40th power-play assist, eclipsing Raffi Torres for sole possession of ninth place on the franchise list … Baird scored his first career goal Thursday night in a 5-4 overtime loss to visiting Guelph … Huether has three points, including two goals, in the last three games … The Attack, which had played four straight road games and saw its first home-ice action since Nov. 15, is 7-3-2 at the J.D. McArthur Arena … The Battalion was 1-for-3 on the power play. Owen Sound went 0-for-5 … Opening line combinations included Paul centring Jared Steege on left wing and Amadio on right wing, Brett McKenzie centring Hampus Olsson on left wing and right winger Alex Henriksson and Huether pivoting left winger Baird and right winger Mathew Santos. Zach Poirier centred left winger Owen Green and David Sherman on right wing … The Battalion was without Zach Shankar, Zach Bratina and Calvin Gomes.
The online game sheet can be found here.
The game highlights can be found here.
