North Bay Battalion leading goal scorer Nick Paul notched two tallys in the Troops' 5-1 win over the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night, extending his point-scoring streak to a career high nine games. FILE PHOTO
The North Bay Battalion went from zero to 100 real quick in Kitchener on Friday night, scoring on their first shot and denying the Rangers any chance to get in the game, not even a little bit.
The Troops avenged a bitter loss to the Rangers last week with a dominating 5-1 win at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, controlling the game from the opening puck drop and never looking back.
First star of the game Nick Paul had two goals and one assist, including the game-winner, while Nick Moutrey pitched in with a goal and two assists of his own.
Backup goaltender Jake Kment was solid in his second career start as a Troop, stopping 15 of 16 Ranger shots, with leading defencemen Miles Liberati and Marcus McIvor both registering plus-four performances in front of him.
The Battalion took advantage of a depleted Rangers defence, who were without the services of captain Liam Maaskant and Max Iafrate for the second straight game for their respective suspensions.
Alex Henriksson got the North Bay boys on the board just one minute into the game on the team’s first shot against acclaimed goaltender Jake Paterson.
Mike Amadio drew the attention of all Kitchener defencemen while working his magic in close to the Ranger net, leaving Henriksson all alone in the slot, where he cushioned Amadio's pass and buried the game's opening goal.
That lead was negated just four minutes later though after Darby Llewellyn finished off a perfect pass from Mike Davies behind the net for the Rangers first goal of the game.
But that is as close as the Rangers would come to making it interesting.
Paul scored what would prove to be the ultimate game-winner just seven minutes later in the period, redirecting a quick point shot off an offensive zone faceoff for his team-leading 32nd of the campaign.
And he wasn’t done there.
Halfway through the second period, Paul was the catalyst for the third Battalion goal, driving hard to the Ranger net and making a sequence of slippery moves in close, which Moutrey somehow finished off.
From there, the Troops rallied for two more goals to round out the game, with Brett McKenzie scoring in his second straight off a clean pass from Moutrey before Paul would add the security marker with an empty-netter in the later stages of the final frame.
The strong performance extends Paul’s point-scoring streak to a career-best nine games, during which he has scored nine goals and four assists.
Battalion captain McIvor became the all-time leader in games played by a Troop on Friday, overtaking former teammate and captain Barclay Goodrow for the distinction with his 314th match.
The Battalion now look to be back on track and have two consecutive wins after overcoming one of their ugliest losing skids of the season.
They will play their third game in as many nights against the Niagara IceDogs on Saturday, attempting to avenge their heartbreaking third period collapse to the hounds at home last week, during which they surrendered five goals in the third period of a 6-5 loss.
After clinching a playoff spot in Thursday night’s win in Barrie, the Battalion are vying for a top spot in the Eastern Conference. They currently sit one point behind the Ottawa 67’s for third place in the conference and five points behind the Central Division-leading Barrie Colts.
