Wednesday Highlights: Generals tie series

Wednesday April 29, 2015

The North Bay Battalion have long held the reputation across the league of being a stingy team defensively. After struggling to muster just three goals in their first three games, the Oshawa Generals equaled that output on Wednesday night as they generated traffic in the goalmouth and got pucks to the net in a 3-2 victory to tie the series at two games apiece. Highlights / Post-Game Comments   #OSHvsNB

Defenceman Stephen Desrocher led the way with a goal and an assist, scoring the difference maker at 8:23 of the third period on a wrister from the point that beat a screened Jake Smith.

“It’s always fun when us defencemen can chip in offensively,” said a smiling Desrocher post-game. “I thought we were great from the goaltender out tonight. Kenny (Appleby) made some big-time saves for us throughout the game to give us a chance.”

Appleby turned aside 24 of the 26 shots he faced on Wednesday, including a third period robbery of North Bay blueliner Kyle Wood in the slot midway through the third period to preserve the lead.

Other Oshawa goals also came from the perimeter, with Matt Mistele tipping a Desrocher point shot past Smith in the first period and Michael Dal Colle blasting a slapshot in from the point on the powerplay in the second.

Oshawa’s powerplay was 2-for-4 in the win, and gradually improved as the game wore on.

“I thought they really took the play to us in the first period tonight,” said Generals coach D.J. Smith. “We were stuck in sand a little bit and we looked out of sync on the powerplay. Once we started to simplify things on the man advantage we started seeing results. We’ve learned that if Jake Smith can see the puck, he’s going to stop it.”

North Bay coach Stan Butler was pleased with his club’s effort early on, but said a slow start to the second period led to Oshawa’s first goal.

“We weren’t as hard on the forecheck to start the second and we eventually started chasing more than we did dictate what was going on out there. That’s when you get tired and start taking penalties. You have to give Oshawa credit though, they did the simple things that resulted in success,” Butler said. “Too often tonight we tried to be fancy rather than make the direct play.”

“They lost last night and came back strong in this one. Now we have to do the same thing in Oshawa on Friday.”

The series shifts back to Oshawa knotted at two for a 7:35pm start on Friday. The game can be seen on local Rogers TV and TVCogeco channels in addition to Rogers Digital Channel 368/369.

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