Third-time charm awaits winners
BRAMPTON, Ont. – It’s a series, not a game, but the Brampton Battalion’s showdown with the Sudbury Wolves could be considered, if not a rubber match, a rubber matchup.
The Battalion, which is to move to North Bay for the 2013-14 Ontario Hockey League season, opens a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal against Sudbury at home at 7 p.m. Thursday.
With the series, the clubs will have met three times in the playoffs, all in the first round, all fourth- and fifth-place pairings and all with the Battalion holding home-ice advantage. Each has won one series to this point.
The Battalion swept the Wolves in 2012 to avenge a six-game Sudbury victory in 2005.
Because of the unavailability of the Sudbury Community Arena for the first weekend of the series, the Troops hosted the first two games last year. The OHL protocol for the venue of playoff games has been changed to a 2-2-1-1-1 format this season from an alternation of dates.
Matt MacLeod scored three goals to lead the Battalion to a 4-0 victory in the opener, with goaltender Matej Machovsky getting the shutout in his first OHL playoff start. Philip Lane provided three goals, including the third-period winner and an empty-netter, in the second game, a 4-2 decision.
When the series moved to Sudbury, the Battalion romped 6-1 in Game 3 before the Wolves, facing elimination, produced their best effort of the set in the fourth game.
With the teams skating four a side, Cameron Wind blasted home a shot from the top of the left-wing circle at 14:47 of the second overtime period to give the Troops a 4-3 victory and the sweep. Derek Schoenmakers had tied it for the home side at 18:10 of the third period.
“It was an unbelievable game,” noted Battalion coach Stan Butler. “I’m just glad we won it.”
The game produced the Troops’ third sweep of a playoff series. The others came against the Guelph Storm in a Western Conference quarterfinal in 2001 and in the first round against the Peterborough Petes in 2009.
In 2005, Benoit Pouliot scored on a power play at 1:35 of the second overtime period at Sudbury to give the Wolves a 5-4 victory in Game 6. Referee Brad Beer assessed the Battalion’s Aaron Snow a questionable high-sticking penalty eight seconds into the second extra session.
At the time it was the longest game in Battalion history. That distinction now belongs to Game 5 of the 2009 Eastern Conference final against the Belleville Bulls, in which Nick Palmieri scored at 18:44 of the second overtime period to give the Bulls a 3-2 home-ice win. The Troops captured the series at the Powerade Centre in the sixth game.
Game 4 at Sudbury a year ago is the second-longest in Battalion annals.
Despite the change in playoff formatting this season, even if the Wolves had won the teams’ battle for fourth place in the conference, the series would have started with two games at Brampton because of the unavailability of Sudbury’s facility for the opening weekend. That would have seen Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary, played at Sudbury, as well as any Game 7.
