Oshawa Generals defenceman Stephen Desrocher, centre, reacts to a stunning two-on-none save by North Bay Battalion goaltender Jake Smith in the Troops' 2-1 overtime win in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals on tuesday night. PHOTOS BY TOM MARTINEAU
Both head coaches of the OHL Eastern Conference Final teams promised each game would get more difficult and infinitely more intense as the series progressed.
They didn’t lie.
The North Bay Battalion and Oshawa Generals needed overtime for the second consecutive game on Tuesday night, pushing each other to the absolute brink in front of a rowdy Memorial Gardens crowd.
This time though, fate favoured the Troops as they skated away with a 2-1 win in a sudden death shocker.
Ryan Kujawinski once again played the role of hero for the guys in green, scoring his sixth goal of the playoffs just over 10 minutes into the first overtime frame on a close range rush with Nick Moutrey.
The win gives the Battalion the all-important 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and keeps home ice advantage in their favour.
“I think our guys realized in overtime that it can go either way,” Battalion head coach Stan Butler said after the game. “We told them about second effort hockey and I think on the goal that we scored, you could see a second effort by a couple of guys and lucky for us it went in the net.”
But the Battalion were thankful to have made the extra frame at all after the Generals dominated the majority of the match early on.
The Oshawa offence still couldn’t find their prolific prowess, but it wasn’t for a lack of chances.
Jake Smith, who was named CHL goaltender of the week for his performance in the first two games, was put to the test early and often, stopping 34 Oshawa shots, most of which were high quality chances.
It’s a playoff cliché, but a successful team needs a goaltender to steal a game at some point, and Smith certainly robbed the Generals of a dominant performance early on.
“Jake has played well every game,” Butler said simply. “He gave us a chance to win tonight; we came out in the first period and we weren’t very good.
“Why people don’t give him a chance at the next level is beyond me,” Butler added about his goaltender. “He’s a guy that’s a great athlete, a competitor, and all he does is stop pucks and win."
Despite the Battalion having the crippling home crowd momentum on their side from some early hits, Oshawa established the early energy.
After winning a defensive zone faceoff, the Battalion coughed up the puck down low and were caught off guard by a quick transition slap shot from defenceman Stephen Desrocher, who wired one over Smith’s glove for the first goal of the game.
But with nearly no energy in North Bay’s favour, the Generals let them right back in the game.
Stuck in transition mode behind their own net, the Generals’ defence coughed up the puck, which Brett McKenzie capitalized on and served an inbound Ray Huether a perfect pass that he used to walk in all alone and float over the glove of Ken Appleby for the equalizer.
After one, the Generals were outshooting the gang green 15-6 and had the obvious advantage.
The second period saw more of the same at first, with the Generals generating an offensive opportunity onslaught.
And at that point, Smith had enough of the nonsense.
On a painfully slow Oshawa two-on-none, Smith was down and out as forward Cole Cassels was fed an open cage chance.
With the fans already joining in a chorus of disappointed sighs, Smith reached out with his glove from the sprawled out seated position and snagged the shot in mid air.
That stop seemed to give the Troops a momentary lift, but Smith was called upon time and time again as the Generals continued to apply the threatening pressure until the end of the scoreless second frame.
The Battalion managed to work their way back into the game in the third period, narrowing the shot disadvantage and gaining ground on the Generals.
But the goaltenders shone again, shutting the door and sending the tilt to sudden death.
“I thought they outcompeted us in the first period," said Butler. "But I think the second period was about even, and we were better in the third period."
That momentum was carried over as the Battalion came out the far better team in the sudden death stanza, applying relentless pressure to the Oshawa net.
Eventually, Kujawinski decided to end the game in similar style to his double overtime winner last series against the Barrie Colts.
With the Generals hemmed in their own zone and prematurely moving up ice to break out, Alex Henriksson connected with Nick Moutrey, who found a wide open Kujawinski waiting on the left hash mark for the feed.
With Appleby sprawled out on the play, Kujawinski was left with an open net for the game winning goal, igniting a Memorial Gardens celebration that had enough energy to power a small city.
Oshawa, the highest scoring Eastern Conference team in the regular season, has now buried only three goals in three games this series.
“We had more chances than they did tonight, but we just didn’t bear down,” said Oshawa head coach D.J. Smith. “We had three empty-nets where Jake Smith made great saves; we’ve got to bear down and put it in the back of the net.”
While their threatening power play finally broke the special teams ice on Tuesday night, they remain just 1-for-11 with the man advantage against the Battalion.
“In my opinion, we probably should have had five or six more power plays and it just wasn’t called,” Smith argued after the game.
North Bay, on the other hand, has yet to score a power play goal on their seven chances this round.
The Troops don't have much time to relish the win though, with game four scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Memorial Gardens.
Battalion vs Generals Game 3 April 28th, 2015 from Chris Dawson on Vimeo.
