Traditionally, playing a weak team is a great way to get out of a mini funk.
The North Bay Battalion hockey club is looking to do just that as they face the last place Sudbury Wolves Thursday night at Memorial Gardens; the start of a home-and-home series against their northern rival which finishes with a Friday night tilt in Sudbury.
The Troops are looking to erase a 2-game losing streak which included a 3-2 road loss in Barrie on Saturday and a 3-1 loss at home to the Mississauga Steelheads on Sunday.
The Sudbury Wolves come to Memorial Gardens with the worst record in the OHL. They sport a 4-17 record and are the only team left in the OHL with a single digit point total.
However, there is something about the Wolves that North Bay fans should be proud to cheer about. The Wolves could have 2 North Bayites on their roster tonight in the form of Danny Desrochers and Voodoos affiliate player Michael Silveri.
Silveri has played 4 games with the Wolves this season and practiced twice this week with Wolves but still may not dress Thursday night.
It's been confirmed that Silveri will not dress for the Wolves.
It would have been the first time since 1997, when Jamie Vossen and Tyler Rennette played for the hometown Cents, that a OHL team sported 2 North Bay area players on a major junior roster on Memorial Gardens ice.
From the Battalion perspective, Head Coach Stan Butler will be expecting more energy than his club exhibited on home ice Sunday afternoon.
"Hopefully today we got a lesson that A) we got to be a hard working team to be successful B) we have to play as we call it Battalion hockey and C) we got some guys right now that you know in all due respect have to be producing a little bit better," said Butler after Sunday's loss.
In the teams’ only previous meeting, the Battalion won 6-2 at Sudbury back in early October.
Butler said the Wolves’ Nathan Pancel and Nicholas Baptiste command special attention. Pancel has 15 points, including nine goals, in 21 games, while Baptiste has six goals and four assists for 10 points in as many games since returning from injury.
“They might be better than their record now that Baptiste is back and Pancel is going,” said Butler on www.battalionhockey.com
“They have some good players you need to respect. Pancel is a 40-goal scorer, and so is Baptiste.”
Despite the two-game losing streak, the Battalion still sit on top in the Central Division, with a 4 point lead on the Barrie Colts.
