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The North Bay Battalion are in a unique situation.
For the first time this playoff year the Battalion will be coming home with a 2-0 series lead.
The Troops played textbook Battalion hockey on Friday in a 1-0 win and Sunday in their 5-2 conquest in Oshawa to grab home ice advantage in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals and put themselves in a tremendous position to move on to the OHL Finals.
Still, the Battalion need to stay focussed against the tough Oshawa Generals squad which will be without captain Josh Brown, who will be sitting out Game 3 with a suspension courtesy of a game 2 second period slew foot on Battalion forward Ben Thomson.
Expect a push back from the Generals who will be looking for more from their skilled players Scott Laughton and Michael Dal Colle as they will try to silence the Battalion crowd in hopes of snagging a game 3 road victory.
“We aren’t going to panic, we have to refocus and stick to a game plan we know,“ stated Generals head coach DJ Smith, who has seen his 8-game playoff winning streak transform into a 2-game losing streak to start this series.
"We need a short memory and of course we didn’t want to lose 2 at home where we played so well but I don’t think anyone thought we would sweep these guys and we have to go there and win a hockey game.”
The Battalion will continue to ride the hot hand of Barclay Goodrow, who looked like a young Eric Lindros on the GMC Centre ice on Sunday as he dominated the Generals defenders with 3 goals and 1 assist along with another 2 shorthanded breakaway's that were turned away by Gens goaltender Daniel Altshuller.
Clearly the best players for the Battalion have been better than the Generals' Dal Colle and Laughton.
That will have to change if the Generals want to get back into this series.
Green Gardens
Mayor Al McDonald has been encouraging the sold out crowd to sport green and white in the stands for Tuesday's contest.
Storm Rolling
In the Western Conference final, the Guelph Storm took a firm grip on their series with a convincing 7-1 win over the Erie Otters in Pennsylvania Monday night. 2014 NHL Draft prospect Robbie Fabbri led the Storm with 3 goals and 1 assist as the Storm take a commanding 3-0 series lead.
The Storm can wrap up the series with a win in game 4 tonight in Erie.
