Battalion forward Zach Bratina goes upstairs on Sting Goalie Taylor Dupuis during a 8-5 comeback win over Sarnia in early November. The two teams meet Friday night in Sarnia to start the Battalion's busy weekend on the road. PHOTO BY TOM MARTINEAU.
The North Bay Battalion will once again be without forward Zach Bratina this weekend as the Battalion play 3 road games in 3 nights on their southwestern Ontario road swing.
Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler says he will be seeing a physician to find out more about his upper body injury on Tuesday.
“He’s going to be evaluated by a doctor in Toronto and once he sees the doctor we will have a better indication,” said Butler during Wednesday’s weekly media scrum.
Bratina, missed the passed 3 games for the Troops and sits with 7 goals and 9 assists totalling 16 points in 21 games this season.
Butler credited Ray Huether for stepping up his game and making his way onto the first power play unit.
The overage forward picked up from the Sudbury Wolves early in the year has scored 4 times and added 12 assists.
While Huether has perhaps surpassed expectations, the same cannot be said for some other returning Battalion forwards. However, Butler pointed more towards his first year players who need to do more starting on this road weekend.
“The one thing I’ve been really trying to work on is trying to get our rookies going,” said Butler.
Rookie forwards Zach Poirier, David Sherman, Owen Green and Hampus Olsson have combined for only 6 goals, with Green and Olsson still looking for their first career OHL markers.
“I think as a group our first year players need to give us more and that’s one area that group of guys need to be better as we go through the season here. We need to give them opportunities but at the same token opportunities equal production and when they get on the ice they have to make things happen and if they do that we will give them more opportunity.”
The Battalion begin their road trip with a clash against the Sarnia Sting. The Sting host the contest riding a 6-game win streak but will be without top scorer Pavel Zacha, who will serve the final game of a 6-game suspension Friday night.
The Battalion will make their way to Windsor Saturday night before traveling to London for a late Sunday afternoon matinee with the London Knights.
“Obviously it’s a challenge, whether it’s on the road or at home, to play 3 games in 3 nights,” said Butler about the Battalion, who sit in first in the East Division with a 14-5-4-1 record.
“They are 3 tough rinks to play in, but we talk about a hockey season like its a process, you’ve got to go through a lot of things, it’s like driving on a road that’s got construction, you go through a lot of bumps and detours and things like that and we have to make sure that not only do we evaluate our team after every game, and this will be a good challenge for our guys so our guys should be excited about this.”
