Troops plan to power up power play
BRAMPTON, Ont. – More production from the power play will be one of the items in the game plan when the Battalion hosts the Oshawa Generals on Thursday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
The Battalion ranks 16th in the 20-team Ontario Hockey League in power-play efficiency, with 10 goals in 70 man-advantage situations. The club hasn’t scored a power-play goal in its last three games, including in nine opportunities Sunday in a 1-0 loss to the visiting Peterborough Petes.
“In the first period against Peterborough we had a five-on-three power play which would have made it a different game if we had capitalized on it,” said assistant coach Kelly Harper, who oversees the power-play and penalty-killing units.
“Once you go five or six power plays without scoring, the players have a tendency to try to do everything on their own. It’s so important in a penalty-filled game to score early and give the power play some confidence.”
Third-year centre Kamil Kreps, who has worked the point on the power play since his rookie season, said, “I thought we had some good chances against the Petes, but we just couldn’t get to the rebounds.”
Harper said that success with the man advantage comes down not only to the players on the ice but to their execution.
“It’s something we’re addressing. Our execution with our passing has to better, and we have to get pucks to the net and create scrambles. It’s not pretty, but that’s how goals are scored in today’s game, through scrambles and battling for loose pucks.”
Working the power play, Harper said, is “determination and attention to detail.”
“You have to be determined to fight for every loose puck and win every one-on-one battle, just as you would if you were playing five-on-five. Your passes have to be very good. They have to be on the tape. Penalty killing is so good now that, if you don’t make good passes, you’re going to get jumped on. Most teams penalty kill aggressively and, if you don’t move the puck and execute well, you’ll have guys all over you and you’ll be back in your end a lot.
“We make some unforced errors because of poor decisions or bad passes. We have opportunities to get the puck to the net and create a scramble with a rebound or a chance to take the puck to the net from the corner, and we don’t always take advantage of that.”
As a key component of the power-play unit, Kreps, who has scored two of his four goals with the man advantage, said: “My job is to shoot more than I pass and try to get it on the net. I don’t think we’re shooting the puck enough, and we aren’t getting enough traffic in front to get the rebounds.”
Noted Harper: “We think Kamil does a good job back there and we’d like him to get the puck to the net a little more. It’s a five-man unit, and everyone contributes. Your quarterback is your most important piece, but we think of the power play as a team thing where everyone on the unit has a role.”
Conversely, Battalion penalty killers, ranked eighth, have given up a league-low nine goals and haven’t allowed a power-play goal in the last six games.
“(Defenceman) Nick Duff is a key contributor on the penalty kill because he has such good feet and he can close gaps in our end,” said Harper, who then made reference to a 3-1 road win over the Erie Otters last Friday night.
“In the Erie game, our best penalty killer was Daren Machesney. If you get good goaltending and you play smart positionally, your penalty killing will be good.”
The Battalion and Generals meet for the first time this season. The Generals, who posted a 4-3 win Sunday over the visiting Sudbury Wolves in their last outing, have a won-lost-tied record of 5-8-3, including one overtime loss.
