Troops edge Wolves 3-2

BRAMPTON, Ont. – The Battalion´s home ice domination of the Sudbury Wolves continued on Sunday afternoon as the Troops put together a gutsy effort with only 16 skaters and edged the Wolves 3-2 before 2,039 fans. The Battalion, who earned their first-ever win against the Wolves on October 18, 1998, are now 2-0-1 at home against Sudbury.
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The Battalion had been on the losing end of a pair of one goal decisions in their last two games in Peterborough and Guelph but Chris Rowan´s goal at 15:38 of the second period proved to be the difference as the Troops picked up their fifth one goal victory of the year.
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"I think this was the worst effort out of the three games we have played this weekend and we got the win," admitted Battalion interim coach Derrick Smith. "We were very competitive against Peterborough and Guelph and with a little luck we could have had three victories. The players here have stepped it up and have taken it upon themselves to elevate their games and you could see that today on the ice. We definitely needed to win today and even though the guys were tired today they gutted it out."
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"Our last two games we had really good first periods," added team captain Jason Maleyko, "but today we just couldn’t get going, so we had a good talk before the second period and came out really strong. We played really well for the last 40 minutes and it was good to get the win after we had struggled for the last few games."
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"We´ve lost our last two games by one goal and I thought we had been playing really well, so we just came out today and gave it our all," said overage forward Scott Thompson. "We have Monday off so we could empty the tank and everybody put forth a really good effort."
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The Battalion played to a 2-2 draw with the Wolves in Sudbury on November 19, but couldn´t generate a shot against Wolves netminder Mike Smith until several minutes had elapsed in the first period.
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The Wolves capitalized on Tyler Hanchuck´s boarding penalty to open the scoring with a power play marker at 13:01 when gigantic Sudbury defenceman Alexei Semenov wired a point shot that eluded Battalion netminder Brad Topping. Ladislav Reznicek and Fedor Fedorov received assists on Semenov´s eighth goal of the season.
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Chris Rowan had a good scoring chance with two minutes left in the opening frame but the Troops headed to the locker room down 1-0 after being outshot 14-6 in the first 20 minutes.
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Jason Maleyko tied a Battalion record less than two minutes into the second period when he picked up his second shorthanded marker of the season when he tied the game while Jay McClement was off for interference. Maleyko, whose goal equaled Aaron Van Leusen´s club record, has now scored four goals in his last five games. Travis Parent and Scott Thompson picked up the assists.
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"That goal gave our team a little boost and really got us going in the second period," said Thompson, who has scored in his last three games.
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"It´s good to be able to chip in with some offence but I´m just glad we got the win," said Maleyko.
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Van Leusen figured in the next Brampton goal as he picked up a turnover in the Sudbury zone and passed to Jeff Bateman who beat Mike Smith for his ninth goal of the year.
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The Wolves tied the game at 9:24 when T. J. Warkus shoved a rebound from a Jason Hicks point shot past Brad Topping for his 10th goal of the year.
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With less than five minutes remaining in the frame, Jason Maleyko sent a cross-ice pass to Van Leusen, who took off up the right side. Van Leusen then fed Chris Rowan who cleanly beat Smith for his ninth goal of the year.
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"One of Sudbury´s weaknesses is defence," noted Van Leusen, "and we saw that if we took the puck hard and wide and fast they wouldn´t be able to keep up with us and I was able to set up both guys and they scored two nice goals."
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The swift Barrie native used his tremendous speed to create both scoring opportunities. "Whenever I can use my speed I will," he explained, "and we will try to pick out some slow-footed defencemen and I will tell the guys to go hard and get around them and good plays will happen from that."
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Shots on goal were even through two periods, 22-22.
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The Troops would hang tough in the final period and successfully killed a delay of the game penalty assessed to Rowan at the midway mark of the period.
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"They put me out there in the last couple of minutes and that surprised me because I have been getting a little less icetime than I have been expecting," said Jonah Leroux, who made a huge contribution by blocking a shot at the Batalion blue line late in the game. "I blocked that shot because I really wanted to help us get that win."
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The Wolves pulled their goaltender with 1:22 remaining but were unable to score with the extra attacker.
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Final shots favoured Sudbury 38-29.
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The game featured plenty of big hits but the Troops showed a good deal of discipline to avoid the penalty box, which was important given their depleted ranks.
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"We had to be disciplined," said Jason Maleyko, "because they were trash talking and using their sticks and we had to be smart enough to stay away from that because we had a short bench."
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"We told our players before and during the game to be smart and not to be taken off by their players and for the most part we did that," noted Coach Smith. "With the number of bodies we have now, the last thing we needed was a lot of penalties."
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"They were taking me out pretty good," said Scott Thompson, who took several hard shots from Sudbury defenders throughout the game, "but if I can create some opportunities for the other guys I don´t mind getting banged up."
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The Battalion was without Rostislav Klesla, Lukas Havel, Raffi Torres and Jay Harrison due to national junior camp commitments. Rookies Ryan Bowness and Jesse Harnden remain sidelined with injuries. Defenceman Alex MacDonell played his third consecutive game on the Brampton blue line after being called up from Georgetown.
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"We have to go with the players we have," said Aaron Van Leusen after the Battalion iced 16 skaters for the third straight game. "We hope that guys like Harrison and Torres make the junior team but we are going to keep going with the guys we got and I think we will continue to do well if we come out strong. Without some of our top guys we will have to continue to do some of the small things to succeed and I think we have been doing that as a team."
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"Everybody knew they would get a lot of ice time when the other guys left," remarked Scott Thompson, "so I think that gave a little incentive to play a little harder so some of our guys can show what they can really do."
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Two of Sudbury´s stars, Jason Jaspers and Derek MacKenzie, are also at the Canadian Junior Selection camp. The Wolves were also missing Mike Vaillancourt and Steve Ellis and called up Troy Duncan, Greg McAuley, Justin Tolton and former Battalion winger Tyler Dukelow, who was traded to Sudbury on September 18.
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The Wolves are now winless in their last four games while the Battalion remains in fourth place in the Midwest Division, one point behind the Owen Sound Attack.
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The Troops play their last game before a nine day Christmas break on Thursday night when they host the Soo Greyhounds at the Bunker.
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