Kitchener Rangers forward Brandon Robinson delivers a big hit to the North Bay Battalion's Hampus Olsson in the Rangers' 5-1 win at Memorial Gardens on Thursday night. PHOTOS BY TOM MARTINEAU
Imagine being in a rowboat with 18 different oars going in opposite directions.
Apparently that is how it feels to be standing behind the North Bay Battalion bench these days, according to head coach Stan Butler.
The Troops suffered a 5-1 blowout loss to the visiting Kitchener Rangers at Memorial Gardens on Thursday night, their second straight regulation loss and third in their last five tilts.
Former Troop Brandon Robinson, who was traded to the Rangers early last season, had two goals, including the game-winner in the second period, while his linemate Ryan MacInnis had two goals of his own.
The typically sound Butler defensive regime was nowhere to be found against the Rangers, making costly turnovers at their own blueline and deep in the defensive zone.
But goaltender Jake Smith, the last line of defence, also had an uncharacteristic off-night, only managing 12 saves on 17 shots, a save percentage of just 70.5.
“Kitchener is one of the upper echelon teams and here you see why: they work very hard and they play very consistent; they play a lot like our team did last year,” a noticeably disappointed Butler said after the game.
“Tonight is another example, quite frankly, where guys probably didn’t stick to the game plan, and when they don’t stick to the game plan the results are pretty evident,” he added.
The Rangers set the tone early by working well off the transition and generating their fair share of chances off the rush. They also had a strong cycle game deep in the Battalion end.
That pressure eventually turned into the first goal of the game after a weak point shot found its way through traffic and onto the stick of Kitchener leading-scorer MacInnis. With Smith on his knees and out of position, MacInnis simply walked around the netminder and potted his 17th of the season.
A pair of uncharacteristic turnovers then cost the Battalion dearly in the second stanza.
First, Zach Shankar made a tape-to-tape pass to a Ranger forward from behind his net, which was eventually chipped in by Robinson and proved to be the game-winner.
“It was a little weird coming back and playing on the other side, but to come out and get a couple goals and get a big win is a really great feeling,” Robinson said after the game.
“We are starting to worry about ourselves; going into each game we need to focus on our game plan, execute that, and let other teams adjust to us,” he added. “That’s what we did tonight and it paid off.”
Then, just six minutes later, a blueline turnover resulted in a Ranger three-on-one that was finished off by MacInnis with a textbook one-timer just underneath the crossbar, his second of the night.
When asked if the uncharacteristic play in their own zone could be attributed to the mental fatigue Butler referred to earlier in the week, he said “excuses are for losers and I don’t usually like spending much time around losers.”
The one bright spot for the guys in green was a late second period power play goal by Nick Paul. Using the two screens in front of Paterson, Paul fired a floating wrist shot that went post-in from the right faceoff circle.
But what little ground that gained was quickly squashed after the Rangers scored two goals on just four shots in the final frame.
With eight minutes remaining in the game and fans already heading for the exits, Nick Magyar added insult to injury by dangling past through two Battalion defencemen and Smith for the final goal of the evening.
“We have won some big games this year but we have lost some bad games, and that’s just an inconsistent thing that I think goes down to work ethic,” said Butler. “You can coach a team, but a team needs to want to be coached and, better still, a team needs to want to listen to get to where they want to go.”
The Battalion are now just 5-3-0-2 in their last 10 games and are now within reach of the Ottawa 67s, who are just two points behind the Troops in the Eastern Conference.
And their schedule doesn’t get any easier.
On Friday the team head west to challenge the top dogs in the Western Conference, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Greyhounds are on a five-game winning streak of their own and have taken a commanding lead in league goal scoring.
“We have a unique group this year,” said Butler. “This unique group has to figure out a way to do what they need to do in order to be successful. If they don’t, the playoffs will be short and sweet.”
