Round Three Preview: Oshawa and North Bay begin battle for Bobby Orr Trophy
Oshawa, Ont. – It’s a matchup of the Eastern Conference and Oshawa versus North Bay will be a contest you will not want to miss!
The Oshawa Generals are coming from a Round Two Series sweep and preparing for battle against the North Bay Battalion to compete in Round Three of the 2024 OHL Playoffs for the Bobby Orr Trophy.
Oshawa finished the regular season first in the East with 89 points while North Bay trailed behind just two points below with 87. The Generals wrapped up their regular season on a 12-game win streak and they most definitely have carried that momentum into the playoffs. This series will be a tight race and both teams are eager to get things started this Friday at the Tribute Communities Centre as they open Game One out of the best of seven.
“If we play the right way, we’re going to give ourselves the chance to win hockey games every night,” says Generals captain and graduating senior, Stuart Rolofs. “Finishing the year on that winning streak, we’ve continued to play the same way in the playoffs, and it’s been giving us success.”
Last week, the Generals completed their revenge tour against the Ottawa 67’s and won the Round Two Series 4-0. Their goal in Round Two was to initiate payback after being eliminated from the 2023 OHL Playoffs in Round One last year by the 67’s, and surely enough, they completed that task with a perfect sweep.
Game One Round Two began with forward Dylan Roobroeck having a four-point night, scoring, and adding three assists, while Calum Ritchie had three points, scoring twice and adding a helper. In the Game Two 6-1 victory in Oshawa, Beckett Sennecke picked up the first star scoring twice in the win. Game Three in Ottawa was pushed to overtime as Roobroeck and Sennecke each had two-point evenings while forward Connor Lockhart was the overtime hero. Jacob Oster stopped 39 of 42 shots to keep the team alive for almost 80 minutes of play. Game Four concluded after Oshawa dominated with control as rookie Owen Griffin, along with Sennecke grabbed two points each and Roobroeck earned his lead in the OHL Playoffs in points.
Since the conclusion of Round Two, Oshawa’s Roobroeck was named the OHL’s Player of the Week, Coach Derek Laxdal was announced the OHL’s Coach of the Year, and Oster was declared OHL’s Goaltender of the Year. North Bay is approaching a #RedHot Generals team that beat them in the regular season by just two points and is remaining both hungry and fiery to get this next round started.
“Both teams have made additions at the trade deadline and finished hard at the stretch,” says Generals Head Coach, Derek Laxdal. “I don’t think the style of play will change much from North Bay to the Oshawa Generals. Both teams are very structured, they defend well, they play hard, compete hard and I think it’s going to make for an exciting series.”
Much like the Generals, the Battalion are approaching the Eastern Conference Finals fresh out of a Round Two sweep after they took down the Sudbury Wolves. Andrew LeBlanc scored two goals in Game One and added an assist to a 5-2 victory. In Game Two, Mike McIvor stopped 35-of-36 shots to gain a 2-0 series lead, Sandis Vilmanis and Jacob Therrien kicked off the scoring in the first period, Justin Ertel and Ihnat Pazii scored 79 seconds apart to give the Battalion a commanding 4-0 lead and Owen Van Steensel added an exclamation point with an empty net from the other end with just over six minutes remaining. Game Three had the Troops trailing 5-2, yet the Battalion responded with three consecutive third-period goals before Dalyn Wakely’s second of the game was the winner in overtime. Game Four wrapped up their series after Vilmanis scored 28 seconds into the first period en route to a hat-trick along with an assist.
“I’ve got to give all the credit in the world to the guys in our room,” says North Bay Head Coach, Ryan Oulahen. “The superpower of our team is the fact that they’ve been together for so long. Facing a rival in the Second Series brought out the best in us. Going to be a different challenge moving forward, but it’s something that we’re looking forward to.”
As the first seed, the Generals have a home-ice advantage for Games One and Two. Tickets for this weekend’s games are on sale now and can be purchased here.
For additional playoff information, click here.
Full schedule is as follows:
Oshawa Generals vs. North Bay Battalion
Game 1 – Friday, April 26th at Oshawa, 7:35pm
Game 2 – Sunday, April 28th at Oshawa, 6:05pm
Game 3 – Monday, April 29th at North Bay, 7:00pm
Game 4 – Wednesday, May 1st at North Bay, 7:00pm
Game 5 – Friday, May 3rd at Oshawa, 7:35pm*
Game 6 – Sunday, May 5th at North Bay, 2:00pm*
Game 7 – Monday, May 6th at Oshawa, 7:05pm*