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Battalion ready for a charge from the Frontenacs

Battalion forward Ryan Kujawinski takes a shot during action last Sunday against the Fronts. PHOTO BY TOM MARTINEAU. Ryan Kujawinski knows you can never take the foot off the gas, even when it seems you have your opponent down and out.

Battalion forward Ryan Kujawinski takes a shot during action last Sunday against the Fronts.  PHOTO BY TOM MARTINEAU.

Ryan Kujawinski knows you can never take the foot off the gas, even when it seems you have your opponent down and out.

The Battalion forward was part of the Kingston Frontenacs team that built a very comfortable 3-0 series lead against the Peterborough Petes; only to see them fight back and take the next four games and win the series. 

“Obviously it was tough last year being up 3-0 and losing the 4 games but I just learned you have to play hard every game,” said Kujawinski about the experience. 

“You know the defensive game is huge, you’ve got to be solid defensively and every mistake you’ve got to be mentally sharp and you can’t make any mistakes because a lot of times it ends up in the back of your net.”

Now Kujawinski and his new Troops team-mates are looking to disappoint the Fronts in the first round again.  

The Troops won the season series over the Frontenacs 3 games to 1.  But the Troops only played the Fronts with a healthy Sam Bennett in the lineup once. In that game the Troops were blanked 6-0 at the KRock Centre and Bennett, the Calgary Flames 4th overall pick last summer, netted a hat trick.

Stan Butler, the Battalion Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations believes his team is confident but he realizes beating the Fronts won’t be easy. 

“I think they are confident in their abilities but they also realize the team we are playing is not a 6th seed,” said Butler during his weekly media conference on Wednesday. 

“It’s a team through the regular season last year had more points than us. It’s a team that if Sam Bennett was there all year would have been further up (the standings) so it’s not your typical first round matchup other than having some injuries. We know there is not a lot of room for error. We know that we’ve got to play to our best of our ability and we know that we need the Hockey Gods to be on our side at periodic times in the series for us to win.”

The Battalion got off to a slow start last spring in the first round as they fell behind 3-1 to the Niagara IceDogs before storming back and winning that series in 7 games.   Nick Paul remembers his series winning goal in that tough opening round series. 

“Obviously I think last year we doubted Niagara just a little bit and they ended up taking advantage of that and getting up on us 3-1,” Paul recalled.

“Just the way the team came together, the way we had to bounce back is what we really learned and I think everyone learned it from last year and the people that had that run last year are going to bring it to the team this year. Hopefully we don’t get into that situation again but if we do we definitely know how to bounce back and stay positive.”

Playoff Ice Chips

  • Three members of the Frontenacs were part of that run with the Troops last year, they are Assistant Coach John Goodwin, forward Jared Steege and defenceman Shawn Tessier.
  • Kingston was forced to stay at a hotel in Muskoka due to the lack of hotel availability in the city this weekend. 
  • Frontenacs scout Beau Moyer is from North Bay. 
  • Fronts forward Lawson Crouse was a teammate and line mate of Nick Paul on the Team Canada at the World Juniors in January. 
  • Fronts forward Sam Bennett was named the OHL Player of the Month for March. 

 


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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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