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Barrie Spoils the Party at Battalion Home Opener (VIDEO)

Mike Amadio scored two goals in the home opener versus the Barrie Colts. Despite a good offensive showing, the Barrie Colts won the game in overtime 5-4. PHOTO BY TOM MARTINEAU.

Mike Amadio scored two goals in the home opener versus the Barrie Colts. Despite a good offensive showing, the Barrie Colts won the game in overtime 5-4.  PHOTO BY TOM MARTINEAU.

Home openers have not been kind to the North Bay Battalion and 2014 was no different. Despite scoring three unanswered goals to grab their first lead of the game in the second period, the Barrie Colts put the game on ice in overtime and came out on top 5-4. Going into tonight’s game, the Battalion had only won 5 of their 17 home openers in team history and have now dropped their last ten.

“I thought we played extremely sloppy, we turned the puck over. I mean Jake gave up five goals today and I don’t think he had a chance at any of them. We just got away from doing a lot of the little things that we need to do up the ice,” said Battalion coach Stan Butler.

North Bay looked as though they were about to end the drought, when defenseman Kyle Wood gave the Battalion the lead back with five minutes left in the third. However a late penalty proved costly, as Jeff Blandisi tied the game on the power play in the final minutes to force the game into overtime.

“It was obviously a tough lose tonight. We worked hard to battle back. We didn’t play to our full potential tonight, but we were lucky to get a point and work on some things in the next couple of weeks and be ready to go for the rest of the season,” shared Wood after the game.

Wood and Mike Amadio each had a pair for the Battalion, however coach Butler was quick to point out the challenges his star players had on the defensive end.

“We know Kyle can really pump the puck, but we need him to play against the best players on the other team and with that comes challenges and you can’t be turning pucks over.”

The Colts came ready to play, scoring two goals on their first six shots. Jeff Blandisi finished with four points, while Kyle Lebanc scored the overtime winner and the opening goal, finishing the night with three points of his own.

 “We had a lot of guys that quite frankly got a look in the mirror and will have to figure out what type of players they really are. We had mushers that were trying to be crushers and we had rushers that were playing like ushers. I mean it was just one of those types of games,” explained Butler. “I mean when we score four goals we should win and not go into overtime. We will score goals, but in this league if you allow teams to score five goals, you’re record is not going to be very good."

The Battalion have a week to work on their game plan as they don’t hit the ice until next Friday at home against the Peterborough Petes.

With the Battalion scoring four goals, it was free McDonald's fries for the fans. Last year the Battalion scored 4 goals (or more!) in approximately half their games.  Redemption was about 20%.

See Highlights of the game here: