The Battalion battle for possession in front of Gens netminder and North Bay native Kenny Appleby. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
The Sudbury Wolves have three games remaining.
The North Bay Battalion have two.
But only one game matters to them right now.
The Troops (36-24-4-2) will have the chance to wrap up the No. 2 seed and a Central Division crown in the Nickel City Friday after they blanked the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seeded Oshawa Generals (41-19-0-6) 3-0 Thursday night.
Jake Smith made 20 saves to record his fourth shutout of the season. Head coach Stan Butler says his goaltender was sharp tonight but that defense is team defense.
“When you play defense, it’s six players playing as one,” he said, “We need everybody doing the right things to be successful but I thought Jake tonight was sharp and he was in the right position when he needed to be to make the saves he had to make.”
Smith says he’s more worried about the wins than the shutouts. He adds the team is playing great in front of him and he’s doing whatever he can to keep them in the game.
“It’s the time of the year,” he said, “It’s definitely crunch time here going into the playoffs and the last few games of the season.”
Smith has excelled in that time. He has only given up two goals in 240 minutes of work since the four power play goals against the Niagara IceDogs.
He says the IceDog game was tough, considering he felt the reffing wasn’t really going their way but he got that rust off and has helped the Troops to a four-game winning streak.
Kenny Appleby, a North Bay native, took the loss for Oshawa with a 28 save performance. Barclay Goodrow scored twice and Zach Bratina had a goal.
“I thought we played a pretty solid game,” Butler said, “Oshawa’s a really good team and they always play hard. I thought Appleby had a pretty strong game tonight so you just got to try to find ways to score goals against them and we had a big effort out of some of our top players tonight.”
It was captain clutch Goodrow getting the game rolling, a shorthanded breakaway North Bay fans know all too well. With Jamie Lewis in the box and the Gens first man-advantage of the night, Goody went in alone and tucked it underneath Appleby at 16:02 of the first to give his team the edge.
“Your leadership gets set by the tone and the tone gets set by the leader,” said Butler.
“Tonight, he came out right out of the gun and was really strong right off the bat and I think what that does, when that happens is it gets the other guys going and the really good thing about him is the players always know that he’s going to come with a really good effort.”
Butler says the Nick Paul line in general was “outstanding” and praised a good job done by the defensemen on the back end.
No. 23 got on the board again by crashing the net and converting a Ben Thomson pass from the boards thrown to the slot. As usual with the two, the puck went right on the tape just under six minutes into the second period.
Two minutes later, rookie Brett McKenzie drove to the net, his effort went off Appleby and as it was in mid-air behind the goaltender, Bratina knocked it into the cage to round out the scoring.
It marks another game where the Troops have gotten offense in the early going which Butler attributes to the fans in the rink.
“I think the rink is becoming a real advantage for us (because) the fans are extremely loud and they get the guys into the game early,” he said, “We told our guys it’s really important that we get good starts. You got to have good starts in these types of games.”
The win puts North Bay three points ahead of Sudbury for the Central lead. Butler says from Game 1 on, he believed his team was in contention and that the additions made through the year have made the team even stronger.
He adds they just have to play one day at a time.
“We got the two points that we needed tonight and now tomorrow, we go into Sudbury,” he said, “Obviously, we know what’s at stake for that game and they do as well.”
As for the Wolves players, Butler knows there is a sour taste in Sudbury’s mouth after a 4-1 win on March 9 and they expect a tough game.
“...a bear sleeps in the winter, a wolf doesn’t," the coach added.
Game Notes
-The attendance was 3,836.
-The Troops return home for their final game of the regular season against the Ottawa 67’s on Sunday afternoon. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
You can view a replay of our LIVE BLOG here.
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