Lunch-bucket gang Butler’s top ‘team’
GUELPH, Ont. – Stan Butler had high praise for the 2013-14 North Bay Battalion.
“It’s the best ‘team’ I’ve coached,” Butler, director of hockey operations and head coach since the franchise’s inception, said Friday night after the Battalion was defeated 4-3 by the Guelph Storm, ending the Ontario Hockey League Championship Series in five games.
“We’ve had teams with better individual players,” noted Butler, who’s credited with 1,292 games over 19 seasons with the Battalion, Oshawa Generals and the Western Hockey League’s Prince George Cougars. “But as a team, with a bunch of guys working together, they’ve been unbelievable. They’ve done what we asked them to do. They’ve battled.”
The Battalion, which won the Eastern Conference championship for the second time in its 16-year history, split the first two games at Guelph. At North Bay, the Storm scored two goals in the final minute of the third period to win Game 3 and routed the Troops 10-1 in the fourth game.
Its season on the line, the Battalion opened the scoring before a crowd of 5,015 at the Sleeman Centre as Nick Paul struck on the power play at 16:18 of the first period. Brock McGinn tied it 50 seconds later, but Brett McKenzie restored North Bay’s lead at 19:00.
“We knew we had to get off to a good start because the crowd would be ready to go,” said Butler. “They’re a talented, hungry team, but the character our guys showed was unbelievable.”
Barclay Goodrow’s shorthanded goal gave the Troops a 3-1 lead at 6:39 of the second period, but Matt Finn brought the home side within a goal at 19:00.
The Battalion appeared to have scored another shorthanded goal at 13:31 of the second when Guelph goaltender Justin Nichols’s attempt to clear the puck in the goalmouth caromed off Ben Thomson’s left arm into the net. Referee Mike Cairns waved the play off, and video review failed to overturn the call.
“I beg to differ on whether it was a goal or not, and that changed the game, too,” said Butler.
Guelph pressed for the equalizer in the third period and found it at 15:31, when Kerby Rychel shoveled a loose puck past Battalion goaltender Jake Smith. Rychel then scored the series-clinching goal at 19:33.
“I thought things were good in this game when there were five or six minutes to go and we were up 3-2,” said Butler. “If we win that game, then the pressure goes on the Storm.”
Heading into the series the Battalion was undervalued by many observers against the powerful Guelph squad, the Western Conference titlists who boasted the OHL’s best regular-season record and lost only three games through the first three playoff rounds.
“I always thought we deserved to be here,” said Butler, who guided the Brampton-based Battalion to the OHL final in 2009, losing in five games to the Windsor Spitfires. “I believed we had a legitimate chance to win, and our players showed a lot of people in the hockey community that the Battalion was a team that got better every game.
“This series had four one-goal games, two overtime games and two games won in the last 30 seconds. We gave them a lot bigger push in Game 5 than anybody else has given them, and we did it in their rink.”
Butler called Guelph’s last-minute 4-3 win in the third game a turning point in the series.
“If we had won Game 3, we would have been up 2-1 with Game 4 at home. It was an unfortunate learning experience.”
The finale marked the last OHL game for overage forwards Goodrow, Thomson and Matt MacLeod. Goodrow and MacLeod played five years for the Troops, with Goodrow the franchise’s career leader in games played and game-winning and shorthanded goals and among the leaders in goals and points. MacLeod finished tied for second in games played and among the top 21 scorers in franchise history. Thomson, acquired Nov. 22 from the Kitchener Rangers, produced 39 points, including 24 goals, in 43 games.
Goodrow was passed over twice in the National Hockey League Draft before signing a three-year entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks this year, while Thomson was a fourth-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2012.
“For the guys who aren’t coming back, I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people and be big names in hockey,” said Butler. “For the guys coming back, they can see what it takes to get to an OHL final and know if they work hard there’s no reason we can’t get back here.”
Butler again praised North Bay fans, who made Memorial Gardens a difficult venue for opposing teams throughout the Battalion’s first season in the Gateway City.
“I really want to thank the fans in North Bay. They’re unbelievable people and were truly a seventh man. It’s special for the players because the people treated them so well. For me, it makes me hungrier and more determined to get back here. It was a great ride and a lot of fun.”
