NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Ryder Cali tops three members of the North Bay Battalion in final rankings released Thursday by the National Hockey League\u2019s central scouting department.<\/p>\n
Centre Cali is joined by right winger Parker Vaughan and defenceman Alexander Karmanov on the list prepared in advance of the 2026 NHL Draft, to be conducted June 26-27 at Buffalo, again in a decentralized format.<\/p>\n
A total of 62 Ontario Hockey League performers received ratings on a list of 224 North American-based skaters.<\/p>\n
Cali, who also played left wing this season, is rated No. 25, marking him as a potential first-round pick. He scored 16 goals and earned 20 assists for 36 points in 47 games after missing time to injury.<\/p>\n
A first-round pick, 18th overall, by the Soo Greyhounds in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection from the Markham Majors U16s, Cali had his rights acquired in a trade Sept. 13, 2024. The Penetanguishene, Ont., resident, who stands six-foot-one and weighs 219 pounds, turns 18 on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n
Vaughan is ranked 83rd as a possible third-rounder. The Battalion acquired him in a Jan. 5, 2025, trade with the Barrie Colts, who selected him fifth overall in 2024 from the Elgin Middlesex Canucks U16s. The St. Thomas, Ont., resident turned 18 on March 6.<\/p>\n
Vaughan, who measures six-foot-one and 194 pounds, scored 14 goals and added 19 assists for 33 points in 68 games this season.<\/p>\n
Karmanov is at No. 214, ranked in the seventh and final round, although the projections do not include Europeans. The Battalion acquired the rights to the native of Chisinau, Moldova, from the junior B Brantford Titans in November after he was a third-round pick in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft last July by the Brantford Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Karmanov, who turned 18 on March 22, had two assists in 20 games. He stands seven feet tall and weighs 280 pounds.<\/p>\n
The top-rated OHL skater is Soo defenceman Chase Reid at No. 2. He is followed at sixth by Brantford centre Caleb Malhotra.<\/p>\n
In addition, a list of 37 North American-based goaltenders, including 10 OHLers, was released, along with European-based international lists of 149 skaters and 23 goaltenders.<\/p>\n
The top-ranked OHL goaltender is Ryder Fetterolf of the Ottawa 67\u2019s at No. 11.<\/p>\n
The Western Hockey League has 69 skaters ranked, while the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League has 35, giving the CHL a total of 166. Nine WHL goaltenders and six QMJHL counterparts help produce 25 ranked CHL goalies, accounting for all but 12 listed.<\/p>\n
Players are first-time eligible for the NHL Draft in the year they turn 18, unless they were born Sept. 16 or later, in which case they must wait until the following year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Ryder Cali tops three members of the North Bay Battalion in final rankings released Thursday by the National Hockey League\u2019s central scouting department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/16125508\/RyderCaliScouting.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173684,"date":"2026-04-15T22:24:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173684"},"modified":"2026-04-15T22:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T02:27:28","slug":"brantford-eliminates-battalion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/brantford-eliminates-battalion","title":{"rendered":"Brantford ousts Battalion"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Jake O\u2019Brien scored the winning goal at 8:14 of the third period as the Brantford Bulldogs defeated the North Bay Battalion 5-3 Wednesday night to sweep the Ontario Hockey League teams\u2019 best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n
Adam Jiricek and Marek Vanacker each contributed one goal and one assist, and Gabriel Frasca and Parker Holmes also scored for first-place Brantford, which swept the Sudbury Wolves in a conference quarterfinal. O\u2019Brien added an assist, and goaltender David Egorov made 24 saves in his first appearance of the postseason.<\/p>\n
Ryder Carey, Shamar Moses and Parker Vaughan scored for fifth-place North Bay, which erased a 3-0 first-period deficit. Goaltender Mike McIvor faced 38 shots before a crowd of 2,599.<\/p>\n
The game, which originally was to be played Tuesday night, was postponed because of heavy rainfall and snowmelt that caused widespread flooding and the closing of streets in the area of Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens. Brantford will face either the Barrie Colts or Ottawa 67\u2019s in the conference final.<\/p>\n
\u201cClear as day, just said how proud we were of the battle,\u201d coach Ryan Oulahen reported of his remarks to the Troops. \u201cWhen you\u2019re down 3-0 to the best team in the OHL in the regular season, a lot of things could probably go through your head, and you start the game and you get down 3-0, it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, where\u2019s this going to go?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden, we turned the switch, and the compete of the group is so impressive. I give them a lot of credit. I give our leaders a lot of credit, just dragging everybody into the fight, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m most proud of. You\u2019ve got to create that culture. That culture starts six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien broke a 3-3 tie when he deflected Jett Luchanko’s wrister from the slot past McIvor from the lip of the crease.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs thought they had taken a two-goal lead at 11:15 when the rebound of a Ben Danford shot from the blue line eluded McIvor. Referees Ryan Harrison and Brendan Kane reviewed the goal, which was disallowed after it appeared Luchanko directed the puck with his hand.<\/p>\n
Danford went off for tripping at 15:59, but the Troops failed to generate a scoring chance. Seconds after the penalty expired, a screened Egorov found Kent Greer\u2019s shot from the blue line and corralled the rebound with Ryder Cali lurking.<\/p>\n
McIvor went to the bench for a sixth skater with 1:47 to play, and Vanacker scored into the empty net at 19:43.<\/p>\n
Brantford struck for two goals in a span of 20 seconds in the first frame, sparked by Frasca, who beat McIvor between the legs from the left circle at 7:11 to finish off a passing play with Adam Benak and Luca Testa. Defenceman Jiricek then slipped between the hash marks to put a low wrister past McIvor\u2019s glove.<\/p>\n
Holmes scored his first goal of the playoffs at 13:44. His initial shot from the high slot hit the right post and caromed off a sprawling McIvor into the net.<\/p>\n
Carey\u2019s second goal got North Bay on the board at 17:08 as he wired a high wrister over Egorov\u2019s glove from the left circle. Evgeny Dubrovtsev and Arseny Pronin earned assists.<\/p>\n
Moses cut the Battalion deficit to one goal with an unassisted marker, his first of the postseason, at 1:17 of the second period, whipping a wrister off a faceoff past Egorov from the edge of the right circle.<\/p>\n
Vaughan tied the game shorthanded at 9:39 with Hayden Barch off for tripping. Egorov, who ventured to the circle to his right to play the puck, delivered a clearing attempt to the stick of Vaughan, who fired the rubber into an open net for his team-leading fifth goal.<\/p>\n
The visitors appeared to take the lead at 11:43 when O\u2019Brien swept a loose puck behind McIvor, but referee Harrison immediately waved off the goal, ruling that Vanacker interfered with McIvor.<\/p>\n
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has won 22 of 45 playoff series in franchise history, including 13 of 23 since relocation to North Bay in 2013 … The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 111-125 in 236 playoff games, including 61-56 at home. The Troops are 65-59 since relocation, including 38-24 at home … The Battalion has a won-lost record of 21-25 in the fourth game of playoff series, including 9-16 at home. The Troops are 13-11 since leaving Brampton … In 10 postseason games, Vaughan had two assists to pace the Battalion in points with seven. Cam Warren had four goals and two assists for six points, and Ethan Procyszyn produced four goals and one assist for five points, both in 10 games … Egorov\u2019s previous appearance was in a 6-5 home-ice win March 20 over the Battalion … Each team went\u00a0 0-for-2 on the power play … Opening lines included Procyszyn centring left winger Moses and right winger Nick Wellenreiter, Cali centring left winger Sebastien Gervais and right winger Lirim Amidovski and Warren pivoting left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Vaughan. Dubrovtsev centred left winger Pronin and right winger Carey … Defence pairings were Aaron Enright with Barch, Bronson Ride with Greer and Adrian Manzo with Brandt Harper … The Battalion scratched Jonathan Kapageridis, Alexander Karmanov, Kaden Pitre and Carter Kunopaski … Barch marked his 19th birthday … Among Brantford\u2019s missing were Dylan Tsherna, Philip Govedaris and Camron Hankai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Jake O\u2019Brien scored the winning goal at 8:14 of the third period as the Brantford Bulldogs defeated the North Bay Battalion 5-3 Wednesday night to sweep the Ontario Hockey League teams\u2019 best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/15205838\/ShakesAfterShots.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173682,"date":"2026-04-15T13:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173682"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:49:00","slug":"series-schedule-revised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/series-schedule-revised","title":{"rendered":"Series schedule revised"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The Ontario Hockey League has announced a revised schedule for the completion of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series between the fifth-place North Bay Battalion and first-place Brantford Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Game 4 of the series, which Brantford leads 3-0 in games, already was postponed to 6 p.m. Wednesday from Tuesday night because of flooding and road closings in the area of North Bay\u2019s Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.<\/p>\n
If the Battalion wins the fourth game to extend the series, the fifth game will be played at Brantford at 7 p.m. Friday. Subsequent games are rescheduled to 2 p.m. Sunday at North Bay and 7 p.m. Tuesday at Brantford.<\/p>\n
The original schedule had Game 5 at Brantford on Thursday night, the sixth game at North Bay on Saturday night and Game 7 at Brantford\u2019s TD Civic Centre on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amended series schedule removes a scenario where the Battalion and Bulldogs would be required to play on back-to-back nights in the event of a potential Game 5 in Brantford, that is now scheduled for Friday,\u201d the league said in a release. \u201cPotential Game 6 and 7 dates have been also been adjusted accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Battalion president Adam Dennis addressed the hardship that heavy rainfall and snowmelt inflicted on the community and thanked the City of North Bay for its efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a hectic 48 hours, and I\u2019d like to start by giving our thoughts to those affected by the flooding that occurred yesterday. We would like to thank the City staff for all of their work to allow us the opportunity to play today. We currently have no restrictions, and fans should not expect any disruption heading to the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of the postponement, both teams have decided to adjust the remaining potential games to help manage appropriate travel and accommodations. We appreciate everyone\u2019s patience as we work through these unforeseen circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs posted home-ice wins of 8-1 and 4-1 before a 3-2 victory in double overtime last Sunday at North Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The Ontario Hockey League has announced a revised schedule for the completion of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series between the fifth-place North Bay Battalion and first-place Brantford Bulldogs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/22123801\/Battalion-on-background-1600x900-1.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173683,"date":"2026-04-14T18:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173683"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:25:34","slug":"troops-bulldogs-postponed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/troops-bulldogs-postponed","title":{"rendered":"Troops, Bulldogs postponed"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The Ontario Hockey League playoff game between the North Bay Battalion and Brantford Bulldogs scheduled for Tuesday night has been postponed because of flooding in the area of Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens, the host club announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Brantford has a 3-0 lead in games in the teams\u2019 best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series after a 3-2 road victory in double overtime Sunday.<\/p>\n
The fourth game has been rescheduled to 6 p.m. Wednesday. Game 5, if necessary, would be played at Brantford at 7 p.m. Thursday in keeping with the original schedule.<\/p>\n
Only Gate 6, at the southwest corner of the arena, was considered accessible because of flooded thoroughfares.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current conditions present potential safety concerns, including limited access for emergency vehicles and challenges related to the safe entry and exit of those participating and attending the game in the event of an emergency,\u201d the OHL said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Widespread flooding resulted in the City of North Bay closing several streets, including Chippewa Street and Fisher Street, with the ground near saturation. Chippewa Creek, swollen from extended rainfall and snowmelt, has filled basements. Chippewa Street, where the arena is located, has undergone flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater levels in Chippewa Creek have risen above the banks in some locations, and the storm sewer system is overwhelmed in certain areas, resulting in street flooding,\u201d the City said in a release.<\/p>\n
In an email to arena manager Melinda Fry, Gord Young, North Bay\u2019s communications officer, said: \u201cThe City is recommending cancellation due to rising water levels and localized flooding restricting access to Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens. With thousands of vehicles relying on a single access route, significant congestion is expected, raising safety concerns and limiting the ability for emergency vehicles and evacuees to enter or exit the facility safely should an emergency occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Bay was under a yellow level rainfall warning issued by Environment Canada.<\/p>\n
The forecast for Wednesday called for overnight rain with a 30 percent chance of drizzle in the morning, followed by a 60 percent chance of showers late in the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The Ontario Hockey League playoff game between the North Bay Battalion and Brantford Bulldogs scheduled for Tuesday night has been postponed because of flooding in the area of Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens, the host club announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/14173646\/ZoneFlooded.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173681,"date":"2026-04-12T19:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173681"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:46:53","slug":"brantford-wins-in-second-ot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/brantford-wins-in-second-ot","title":{"rendered":"Brantford wins in second OT"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Ben Danford scored at 14:33 of the second overtime period to give the Brantford Bulldogs a 3-2 Ontario Hockey League victory Sunday over the North Bay Battalion and a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n
Charlie Paquette and Adam Benak also scored for first-place Brantford, which got two assists from Jake O\u2019Brien and 24 saves from goaltender Ryerson Leenders.<\/p>\n
Cam Warren and Ethan Procyszyn scored for fifth-place North Bay, while Ryder Cali contributed two assists. Goaltender Mike McIvor, making his second start of the postseason, faced 58 shots before 3,205 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs, who won the first two games 8-1 and 4-1 at home, will look to wrap up the series in Game 4 on the same ice at 7 p.m. Tuesday, while the Battalion will attempt to force a fifth game Thursday night at Brantford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of the compete, the second effort, the willingness to sacrifice the body right now,\u201d said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt we\u2019re making strides in the series as it goes on. Really loved our start today. I thought we got after it really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to have the puck in our zone, so we\u2019ve accepted that and then tried to figure out ways to alleviate their most dangerous chances, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that, trying to keep it to the outside and then win the second puck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re leaving it all out there. I\u2019m really looking forward to Tuesday now. Our backs are against the wall for the first time in the playoffs, so it\u2019ll be really good to see what we\u2019ve got on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The visitors had a number of chances in the second overtime period before defenceman Danford found the winner, his first goal of the playoffs, taking a cross-ice pass from O\u2019Brien and snapping a low wrister from the right point that beat the screened McIvor to the stick side.<\/p>\n
Brantford held a 10-9 edge in shots in the first overtime frame, when the Troops applied early pressure before the Bulldogs responded. McIvor turned away Marek Vanacker at the lip of the crease in the fourth minute and took a hard shot from Caleb Malhotra off the mask in the 14th. Leenders foiled an early Cali drive, found an Evgeny Dubrovtsev slot shot through traffic in the fifth and denied a Procyszyn wraparound attempt in the 12th.<\/p>\n
After a 1-1 tie at the second intermission, Brantford spent much of the first half of the third period in Battalion territory, but a quick breakout led to the Troops taking a 2-1 lead when Procyszyn beat Leenders low to the glove side at 9:26 with a wrister from the left circle off a two-on-one rush with Nick Wellenreiter. Cali and Aaron Enright assisted on Procyszyn\u2019s fourth goal.<\/p>\n
The Battalion looked to have extended its lead at 11:26 when Wellenreiter raced around Camron Hankai and slipped the puck past Leenders\u2019s left pad. Referee Damian Figueira, who worked with Mike Cairns, signaled a goal on the ice but, after a video review, it was disallowed for goaltender interference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel, three or four feet out, he does get ridden in and pushed in, and his momentum takes him into the contact with the goaltender,\u201d Oulahen said of Wellenreiter. \u201cI do agree that his skate makes contact with the pad, which made the puck go in, but obviously we\u2019re on the wrong side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leenders was on the bench for a sixth skater when the Bulldogs tied the game at 18:18 as Benak\u2019s shot from the right circle eluded a sliding McIvor.<\/p>\n
Warren gave the Battalion its first lead of the series 34 seconds into the first period, finishing off a two-on-one rush with Parker Vaughan by driving to the net and beating Leenders between the pads. Cali had the other assist on Warren\u2019s fourth goal.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs had a 10-9 edge in shots, with their best chance coming in the 11th minute when Zackary Sandhu emerged from the penalty box and broke in alone on McIvor, who got his right pad on Sandhu\u2019s forehand deke attempt. Leenders foiled Arseny Pronin as he drove to the net off the right wing in the second minute and found an Enright shot through traffic in the ninth.<\/p>\n
Paquette tied it on the power play at 2:28 of the second period when he swept the puck past McIvor\u2019s glove from the left circle.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs, who outshot the hosts 15-2 in each of the second and third periods, enjoyed a considerable edge in territorial play. McIvor denied good chances by Paquette, Vanacker, Malhotra, Parker Holmes and Cooper Dennis. The Battalion, which was issued three minor penalties, didn\u2019t have a shot for the final 13:59 of the frame.<\/p>\n
BATTALION BULLETS: Onetime Battalion captain Riley Bruce waved the 7th Man flag before the game, accompanied by Calvin Gomes … The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 17-28 in the third game of playoff series, including 6-12 at home. The Troops are 8-15 since relocation to North Bay for the 2013-14 season … McIvor started for the first time since Game 3 of a first-round series victory over the Peterborough Petes, when he was issued a match penalty in overtime of a 2-1 home-ice loss which went on Jack Lisson\u2019s record. McIvor\u2019s only other appearance in the current playoffs came in relief in the opener at Brantford … North Bay went 0-for-2 on the power play. Brantford was 1-for-3 … Opening lines featured Procyszyn centring left winger Sebastien Gervais and right winger Wellenreiter, Warren pivoting left winger Cali and right winger Vaughan and Dubrovtsev centring left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Lirim Amidovski. Left winger Pronin and right winger Ryder Carey had rotating linemates … Defence pairings saw Enright with Hayden Barch, Bronson Ride with Kent Greer and Carter Kunopaski with Brandt Harper. Adrian Manzo also saw action … The Battalion was without Jonathan Kapageridis, Alexander Karmanov, Kaden Pitre and Shamar Moses, who was sick … Among the scratches for Brantford were Dylan Tsherna, Philip Govedaris and Vladimir Dravecky … Vanacker celebrated his 20th birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Ben Danford scored at 14:33 of the second overtime period to give the Brantford Bulldogs a 3-2 Ontario Hockey League victory Sunday over the North Bay Battalion and a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/12185442\/WarrenOpensScoring.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173680,"date":"2026-04-10T22:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173680"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:14:59","slug":"bulldogs-win-again-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/bulldogs-win-again-at-home","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs win again at home"},"content":{"rendered":"
BRANTFORD, Ont. \u2014 Marek Vanacker scored two goals to power the Brantford Bulldogs to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory over the North Bay Battalion on Friday night and a 2-0 lead in the clubs\u2019 best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n
Adam Jiricek had one goal and one assist, and Caleb Malhotra also scored for first-place Brantford. Goaltender Ryerson Leenders faced 21 shots before 3,207 at the TD Civic Centre.<\/p>\n
Adrian Manzo scored for the fifth-place Battalion, which got 25 saves from goaltender Jack Lisson.<\/p>\n
The series now shifts to North Bay for the third and fourth games at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens at 2 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel like we made some really good strides today,\u201d said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. \u201cThere\u2019s parts of our game where we did a lot more good than we did bad tonight, and this is a tough building to play in.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive Brantford credit. They just show you that, on little mistakes, they can turn something out of nothing like real quick. So we\u2019ll learn from it, and the beauty is we\u2019re headed back home for Sunday afternoon in North Bay, where I know we\u2019ll be a refreshed and energized group.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Battalion, shaking off an 8-1 loss in the opener Wednesday night, competed on even terms in the first period, but the strong start went for naught when Malhotra struck at 19:54, seizing a Bronson Ride turnover and moving in on Lisson to flick a backhander behind the goaltender. The goal was Malhotra\u2019s league-leading eighth of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Brantford had an 8-4 edge in shots in the frame. Malhotra tested Lisson twice early, and Charlie Paquette hammered the puck off Lisson\u2019s pad in the fourth minute. Lisson snared a Jiricek shot from the high slot in the seventh. The Battalion\u2019s best chance came in the 13th minute when a Shamar Moses drive from the high slot glanced off Leenders and skittered across the crease.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs netted what proved to be the winner at 1:16 of the second period. Jiricek\u2019s shot from the blue line hit Jake O\u2019Brien and landed at the lip of the crease, where Vanacker slid it home.<\/p>\n
Vanacker struck again at 9:37 for his fifth goal when he converted a shot-pass from Owen Protz while stationed at the right post. Jett Luchanko drew the other assist.<\/p>\n
Jiricek hammered the puck past Lisson\u2019s glove from the high slot to make it 4-0 at 12:43. Paquette and O\u2019Brien were credited with assists on defenceman Jiricek\u2019s fourth goal.<\/p>\n
Hard work by Moses along the end boards led to the North Bay goal as he fed the puck back to Manzo, who beat Leenders from the right point at 16:51. It was defenceman Manzo\u2019s first goal.<\/p>\n
The Troops, who outshot the hosts 10-9 in the period, had several solid chances. Leenders made two stops on Nick Wellenreiter, sprawled to deny Lirim Amidovski in the 14th minute and made back-to-back saves against Kent Greer and Cam Warren during a late-period power play. Amidovski rang the rubber off the left post in the 10th minute.<\/p>\n
The scoreless final frame saw Brantford outshoot the Troops 12-7. The Battalion\u2019s best chance came in the 11th minute when Leenders foiled Amidovski as he raced to the net off the right wing. Lisson made two good stops on Adam Benak and a terrific glove save on a close-in shot by O\u2019Brien in the 14th minute.<\/p>\n
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 18-27 in the second game of playoff series, including 4-13 on the road. The Troops are 10-13 since relocation to North Bay for the 2013-14 season … Malhotra leads Brantford in playoff points with 13, including five assists, in six games … Amidovski, Manzo and Wellenreiter led the Battalion with three shots on goal each. Jiricek and Malhotra paced the Bulldogs with five apiece … Each team went 0-for-1 on the power play … Opening line combinations featured Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Wellenreiter and right winger Parker Vaughan, Ryder Cali centring left winger Sebastien Gervais and right winger Amidovski and Warren skating between left winger Moses and right winger Ryder Carey. Centre Evgeny Dubrovtsev and left winger Arseny Pronin had various linemates … Defence pairings saw Ride with Hayden Barch, Aaron Enright with Greer and Carter Kunopaski with Brandt Harper. Manzo was a seventh rearguard … The Battalion was without Jonathan Kapageridis, Alexander Karmanov, Kaden Pitre and Nolan Laird, who was sick … Barch returned to action after losing two games to an upper-body injury suffered in Game 5 of a first-round series victory over the Peterborough Petes … Gervais turns 21 on Saturday … Among the scratches for Brantford were Jeremy Freeman, Nikolas Rosetto, Philip Govedaris and Vladimir Dravecky … The Bulldogs\u2019 Luca Testa marked his 20th birthday, while Benak turned 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRANTFORD, Ont. \u2014 Marek Vanacker scored two goals to power the Brantford Bulldogs to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory over the North Bay Battalion on Friday night and a 2-0 lead in the clubs\u2019 best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/10212417\/DennisAmidovskiGetClose.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173679,"date":"2026-04-08T22:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173679"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:32:18","slug":"bulldogs-dominate-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/bulldogs-dominate-opener","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs dominate opener"},"content":{"rendered":"
BRANTFORD, Ont. \u2014 Caleb Malhotra and Jake O\u2019Brien each scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Brantford Bulldogs to an 8-1 Ontario Hockey League conquest of the North Bay Battalion in the opening game of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Adam Jiricek had one goal and three assists while Jett Luchanko provided one goal and one assist for Brantford, which finished atop the OHL\u2019s overall standings this season. Cooper Dennis and Luca Testa also scored.<\/p>\n
Goaltender Ryerson Leenders contributed 31 saves before 3,174 at the TD Civic Centre as the Bulldogs built period leads of 5-0 and 7-0.<\/p>\n
Brandt Harper scored for North Bay, while starting goaltender Jack Lisson surrendered five goals on 19 shots before being relieved by Mike McIvor to start the second period. McIvor, making his second appearance of the postseason, stopped 19 of 22 shots the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The fifth-place Battalion eliminated the fourth-place Peterborough Petes four games to two in the first round, while Brantford swept the eighth-place Sudbury Wolves.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, we were just a step behind in all areas of the game today,\u201d said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you lose 1-0 or 8-1, it\u2019s a loss in the series. We have a lot of things we can learn from here tonight. It\u2019s a healthy experience for us. Our job is to really rest up and recover here tomorrow so that we\u2019re way fresher and rested and ready to go Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Game 2 is scheduled on the same ice at 7 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
Brantford buried the Battalion with the first-period barrage, starting when Malhotra tapped a rebound home from the right side on the power play at 2:25. O\u2019Brien and Jiricek assisted.<\/p>\n
Luchanko scored his first goal of the playoffs at 9:08 when he shoveled the puck off Carter Kunopaski\u2019s leg, assisted by Marek Vanacker and Edison Engle.<\/p>\n
Dennis broke off the right wing on a rush and backhanded the puck past Lisson from the lip of the crease at 12:51, and Malhotra struck for his league-leading seventh goal four minutes later.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien, at the goalmouth, redirected a Vanacker relay from the left-wing boards at 18:37, with the other assist going to Luchanko.<\/p>\n
All that followed an apparent Vanacker goal at 1:33 that was disallowed upon video review, which determined that Luchanko was offside on the zone entry.<\/p>\n
Jiricek took a pass from Dylan Tsherna from behind the goal line and, slipping around Arseny Pronin, moved in from the blue line to beat McIvor through traffic at 4:35 of the middle frame. Ryder Boulton had the other assist on defenceman Jiricek\u2019s third goal.<\/p>\n
Testa was credited with a goal at 14:00, although it appeared the puck never reached him at the left lip of the crease, with an Adam Benak shot instead deflecting off Bronson Ride\u2019s skate. Jiricek had the second assist.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien connected at 1:46 of the third period, knocking the puck into the net from the right side for his second goal of the playoffs, assisted by Vanacker and Jiricek, before Harper broke Leenders\u2019s shutout bid at 5:28, scoring on a screened right-point drive. Sebastien Gervais and Parker Vaughan drew assists on defenceman Harper\u2019s first goal.<\/p>\n
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 26-19 in the opening game of playoff series, including 9-15 on the road. The Troops are 13-10 since relocation to North Bay for the 2013-14 season … Evgeny Dubrovtsev topped the Troops with five shots on goal. Malhotra and Dennis led Brantford with eight apiece … The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Brantford was 1-for-1 … Opening lines included Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Gervais and right winger Nick Wellenreiter, Ryder Cali pivoting left winger Shamar Moses and right winger Lirim Amidovski and Cam Warren centring left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Vaughan. Dubrovtsev centred left winger Pronin and right winger Ryder Carey … Defence pairs were Ride with Adrian Manzo, Aaron Enright with Kent Greer and Kunopaski with Harper … The Battalion was without Jonathan Kapageridis, Alexander Karmanov, Kaden Pitre and Hayden Barch … Pitre left the last game of the Peterborough series in the second period after falling awkwardly behind the Battalion net and being helped off the ice … The Battalion bused to accommodations in Cambridge, Ont., after practice Tuesday … Among the missing for Brantford were Jeremy Freeman, Nikolas Rosetto and Philip Govedaris … Ben Danford returned to the Brantford lineup after serving a two-game suspension. He was assessed a major for checking from behind and a game misconduct in a 4-2 home-ice win March 29 against Sudbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRANTFORD, Ont. \u2014 Caleb Malhotra and Jake O\u2019Brien each scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Brantford Bulldogs to an 8-1 Ontario Hockey League conquest of the North Bay Battalion in the opening game of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series Wednesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/08213146\/WellenreiterUnderPressure.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173678,"date":"2026-04-07T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173678"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:17:10","slug":"troops-bulldogs-set-to-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/troops-bulldogs-set-to-meet","title":{"rendered":"Troops, Bulldogs set to meet"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The North Bay Battalion gets back into Ontario Hockey League playoff action when it visits the Brantford Bulldogs to open a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at 7 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Fifth-place North Bay advanced to meet first-place Brantford with a six-game ouster of the fourth-place Peterborough Petes, while the Bulldogs, who won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for finishing with the most points in the OHL\u2019s regular season, swept the eighth-place Sudbury Wolves in four games.<\/p>\n
The Battalion and Bulldogs split four season meetings, with each winning twice on home ice. Brantford prevailed 7-2 on Dec. 6 and 6-5 on March 20, while North Bay won 5-4 in overtime Jan. 22 and 3-2 in overtime March 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a lot, I don\u2019t think, is going to change for us,\u201d Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Tuesday. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good things we went through in that Peterborough series that prepared us for meeting this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Peterborough series saw the Battalion win one of three overtime games, that being the clincher Saturday night when Parker Vaughan scored his second goal of the game at 17:09 of the second extra period to electrify a season-high 3,728 in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat crowd was insane,\u201d noted Oulahen. \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s many moments that beat that. For me, I\u2019ve been here for a long time and all the major playoff runs since 2013, and that right there was top three for sure in terms of this building popping, the crowd going crazy, and we\u2019re going to need them here this round to match up with the Brantford crowd as well, and I think even excel and exceed it here and really give us an edge here and be the true 7th Man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oulahen suggested that the Troops will require continued commitment to emotional control against the Bulldogs, who defeated North Bay in five games in a conference quarterfinal last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked going into that first round about being even-keeled, just because I had a funny feeling there were going to be so many moments that we were going to have to keep our emotions in check, whether it was losing an overtime game, whether it was dealing with a call that we didn\u2019t love.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the case was, we really did a good job doing that, so I\u2019m going to stick with that theme here, that we\u2019re going into a very hostile building and what we just went through prepared us for this and now we\u2019ve really got to keep our emotions in check even more going into this series.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Bay outscored Peterborough 17-11, while Brantford had an 18-10 edge in goals against the Wolves, with one game at Sudbury going to overtime. The Troops allowed the Petes one power-play goal in 27 opportunities, that coming in Game 3 on one of two shots against Jack Lisson, who entered overtime cold after starting goaltender Mike McIvor was issued a match penalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got so many offensive weapons through their lineup that we\u2019ve got to play really sound defensive hockey,\u201d Oulahen said of the Bulldogs, who boast 11 National Hockey League draftees and who scored on 50 percent of their power plays against Sudbury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the cliche stuff, but it\u2019s blocking shots at the right time, it\u2019s winning our 50-50 puck battles, it\u2019s having the puck as much as we can in their zone. There are so many fundamental things that we\u2019re going to have to stress in this series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisson played in all six games against the Petes, posting a 1.71 goals-against average, a .950 save percentage and two shutouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack was outstanding,\u201d said Oulahen. \u201cIt goes without saying that a lot of those games was Jack keeping us in it. He did an awesome job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Lisson: \u201cWe have tremendous belief within our room, for sure. We know what we\u2019re capable of, so I think it\u2019s just going out there and putting that on ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaden Pitre took a tumble behind the Battalion net in the second period of Game 6 and was helped off the ice appearing to favour his left leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a serious, serious thing,\u201d said Oulahen. \u201cHe\u2019s got some stuff that he\u2019s just got to go through and some tests and whatnot, but he is feeling way better than coming out of the game. Don\u2019t expect him for Game 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game at Brantford, the first of two at the TD Civic Centre to open the series, can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The North Bay Battalion gets back into Ontario Hockey League playoff action when it visits the Brantford Bulldogs to open a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series at 7 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2025\/10\/22124848\/RyanOulahenStock2026.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173626,"date":"2026-04-06T16:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173626"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:38:33","slug":"lisson-named-top-goaltender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/lisson-named-top-goaltender","title":{"rendered":"Lisson named top goaltender"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Jack Lisson of the North Bay Battalion has been named the Goaltender of the Week for the period ended Sunday, the Ontario Hockey League announced Monday.<\/p>\n
Lisson posted a 3-0 won-lost record during the week with a 1.39 goals-against average, a .963 save percentage and one shutout as the fifth-place Battalion won its best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the fourth-place Peterborough Petes four games to two.<\/p>\n
The clincher came Saturday night, when Lisson provided 52 saves at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens in a 5-4 victory that was secured when Parker Vaughan scored his second goal of the game at 17:09 of the second overtime period.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, Lisson registered his second shutout of the series, a 33-save performance in a 4-0 home-ice win as the Battalion evened the set 2-2. He stopped 44 shots at Peterborough on Thursday night in a 3-1 victory.<\/p>\n
A second-year goaltender seeing his first OHL postseason action, Lisson played in all six games of the series, posting a 4-2 record, a 1.71 GAA and a .950 save percentage. Both losses came in overtime.<\/p>\n
Lisson, who turned 20 last Tuesday, went 24-11-3 with a 2.59 GAA, a .913 save percentage and one shutout in 40 regular-season games.<\/p>\n
Chosen in the 15th round, 301st overall, in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection from his hometown Oakville Rangers U16s, Lisson played for the Ridley College Tigers of St. Catharines in 2022-23 before joining the junior A Wellington Dukes the following season. In 2024-25 he played with Wellington and the British Columbia Hockey League\u2019s West Kelowna Warriors before signing with the Battalion and seeing action in 12 games starting in January.<\/p>\n
Lisson is committed to Canisius College of Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the second Battalion goaltender to earn the OHL\u2019s weekly award this season, with Mike McIvor having been recognized for the period ended March 22, the final week of the 2025-26 schedule.<\/p>\n
The Battalion opens a best-of-seven conference semifinal against the first-place Brantford Bulldogs on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 Jack Lisson of the North Bay Battalion has been named the Goaltender of the Week for the period ended Sunday, the Ontario Hockey League announced Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/06154754\/JackLisson.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":173625,"date":"2026-04-04T00:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T04:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/?p=173625"},"modified":"2026-04-05T00:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:52:29","slug":"semifinal-schedule-set-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/article\/semifinal-schedule-set-3","title":{"rendered":"Semifinal schedule set"},"content":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The North Bay Battalion will open a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Brantford Bulldogs on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Ontario Hockey League club announced Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Battalion finished second in the Central Division and fifth in the conference, while Brantford was first in the East Division and the conference.<\/p>\n
The clubs meet in the playoffs for the third time. The Bulldogs, then based in Hamilton, swept North Bay in the conference final in 2022 and, as Brantford, won a 2025 conference quarterfinal in five games.<\/p>\n
Following is the series schedule:<\/p>\n
Wednesday, April 8, at Brantford 7 p.m.
\nFriday, April 10, at Brantford 7 p.m.
\nSunday, April 12, at North Bay 2 p.m.
\nTuesday, April 14, at North Bay 7 p.m.
\n*Thursday, April 16, at Brantford 7 p.m.
\n*Saturday, April 18, at North Bay 7 p.m.
\n*Monday, April 20, at Brantford 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
* if necessary<\/p>\n
Further information can be obtained from Battalion Headquarters at (705) 495-8603, extension 270.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH BAY, Ont. \u2014 The North Bay Battalion will open a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Brantford Bulldogs on the road at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Ontario Hockey League club announced Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":579,"featured_media":173614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"article","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":false,"class_list":["post-173625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-694","description-off"],"acf":[],"featured_image":["https:\/\/media.chl.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/22123801\/Battalion-on-background-1600x900-1.png",1600,900,false],"hide_from_app_feed":false,"video":false,"gallery":null,"ht_game_id":0,"target_video":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chl.ca\/ohl-battalion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]