North Bay Battalion Barclay Goodrow moves the puck up the ice during his 300th career OHL game Thursday night./DENIS DUBOIS PHOTO.
What’s that thing they say about payback?
Just ask the North Bay Battalion.
After letting go of a three-goal lead in their last meeting, the Troops (29-20-4-2) got their turn to amount a comeback with a 3-2 win over the Windsor Spitfires (33-19-2-0) Thursday night.
The difference was simple math according to Troops head coach Stan Butler.
“We scored the goals, they didn’t,” he said.
“It’s true, it’s pretty simple. It’s like one plus one is two,” Butler added, “Last game, they scored three goals in the third period, come back and beat us 6-5. Tonight, they’re up 2-1, we score two goals in the third period and beat them 3-2. That’s just hockey.”
Nick Paul scored the winner at 16:50 of the third period after Windsor started with a 2-0 lead.
Montreal Canadiens pick Brady Vail and Eric Diodati scored for the Spits but in his 300th OHL game, Barclay Goodrow waited patiently to pocket his power play marker to make it a one-goal game going into the final frame.
That was when the Troops reversed the role and picked up the tempo.
“I thought our last half of the game was pretty good,” said Butler, “I thought we were good the last 10 minutes of the second period and I thought we played hard in the third. Their goalie made a couple saves, I just didn’t know if we were going to get that goal and Miles (Liberati) activated and jumped up there four-on-four. It was a good read, a nice shot.”
Liberati pinched in close as a trailer on the rush. Uncovered, the defenseman had all the time to find his shot and buried it at 14:58.
Paul’s clincher was a tip on net from a Dylan Blujus shot.
“Blue put it on net there and took a swing at it,” said Paul, “It went top corner so that’s all I can ask for right there, to get the bounce.”
“We had that in the back of our heads there and we wanted to do the exact same thing to them,” he added about the reversal of fortunes, “I think it was a great comeback.”
The Troops went up 4-1 in Windsor but couldn’t get the two points. This, after a 5-1 loss in Plymouth to round out a tough road swing last weekend, Butler says it wasn’t as bad as one would think.
“I don’t think we were that bad on the weekend. I thought we played pretty well,” he said, “The 5-1 game wasn’t a 5-1 game. Their goalie was great and Jake was Jake tonight. Jake wasn’t Jake there and the other game, we had control of the game and we just let them get back into it and my biggest thing last weekend was we should’ve got a split out of it and I think if we got a split out of it, that’s two games we would’ve been extremely happy (with).”
Butler knew his team would have a tough February schedule, and with home meetings against the Eastern Conference-leading Oshawa Generals and Western powerhouses Erie and Guelph, he says you got to play hard against them to beat them.
“Our guys have got to just accept the challenge and go from there,” he said, “Hopefully, we'll fill the whole building and we’ll get that home town support.”
The Gens will be in the Gateway City for a Sunday afternoon tilt. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
Game Notes
-The attendance was 2,941.
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