North Bay Battalion forward Mathew Santos streaks in on a breakaway on Oshawa General Ken Appleby for the Troops' first goal in a 3-2 loss to the visitors on Wednesday night. The series is now tied at two games each as the teams head back to Oshawa for game five. PHOTOS BY TOM MARTINEAU
The good news for North Bay Battalion fans is they get to see the guys in green face off against the Oshawa Generals on home ice one more time.
The bad news: that’s because they lost to the Generals in game four of the Eastern Conference finals at Memorial Gardens on Wednesday night.
The Generals finally found a goal scoring formula that worked, beating North Bay netminder Jake Smith more than once for the first time this series in a 3-2 regulation win.
All three of the Generals’ goals started from the point, all of them fought their way through thick traffic, and all of them were redirected on their way into the net.
Defenceman Stephen Desrocher notched the game-winning marker just over eight minutes into the final frame, deflating the sell out crowd and regaining home ice advantage for the top-seeded Generals.
Winger Matt Mistele got the goal scoring started for the visitors, while star forward Michael Dal Colle finally came to life on the score sheet by scoring Oshawa's second goal and his first point of the series.
Mistele and Dal Colle’s tallys both came on the power play, which went two-for-four on the evening.
“We’ve got to find ways to shut their power play down,” Battalion head coach Stan Butler said after the game. “You’ve got to give them credit, they did simple stuff on their power play: they put pucks in the net, they tipped and that’s what you need to do when you have two big, strong teams.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how the puck ends up over the goal line as long as it gets in,” he added.
Oshawa goaltender Ken Appleby, a North Bay native, won the latest round of the goaltending duel, stopping 24 shots from the guys in green in front of a strong contingent of family and friends.
“I thought Kenny really held us in it for the longest time and then we were opportunistic, scoring on the power plays that we got,” Oshawa bench boss D.J. Smith said after the game.
With the win, the Generals regain home ice advantage as the series turns into a best-of-three with both teams having won two games each.
Wednesday’s game was also the first Battalion home loss since falling to the Erie Otters in regular season action on March 8.
Early on, the Troops carried themselves convincingly, pushing back the Generals’ front line and forcing them to run around defensively.
If Generals bench boss thought the officials missed some crucial calls in game three, then he likely wasn’t happy about the way the goal scoring got started in game four.
With the Battalion streaking into the Generals’ zone on a two-on-two rush, Mathew Santos’ backcheck marker fell while battling for position with the Battalion forward.
With his defender down, Santos took a clean pass from linemate Brett McKenzie and skated in all alone on Appleby, going high glove side for his sixth of the playoffs.
The Troops carried that one-goal lead and an 11-3 shot advantage heading into the first intermission.
“I thought we played a very good first period; I liked our energy level,” Butler said after the game. “After that I didn’t think we were hard enough on the forecheck and we just turned the puck over too many times.
“In the first five of six minutes of the second period, we had seven or eight turnovers at their blueline and you can’t do that because what happens then is it turns into offensive situations where you get chasing, and when you get chasing the puck all the time you get tired,” he added.
With the Battalion hemmed deep in their own zone killing a penalty, Mistele was left all alone in front of the net, giving him the space to redirect a point shot over the shoulder of Battalion goaltender Jake Smith.
The team’s then traded quick goals after Marcus McIvor sliped his second of the postseason through Appleby’s five hole on a breakaway right out of the penalty box.
Less than three minutes later, Dal Colle negated that goal by firing a power play point shot through a maze of feet to tie the game going into the third period.
Knowing what was on the line, both teams came out for the final frame with plenty of back and forth pace.
But with the Generals finding their smooth puck moving ways deep in the Battalion zone, defenceman Desrocher was able to fire a wrist shot from the left point that looked to change direction before eluding Smith for the game-winning goal.
The Troops staged a comeback bid with some threatening pressure in the remaining 10 minutes, but the Generals found a way to defend their fort just long enough to escape with the win.
“Our team, I thought, played a much better game last night,” said coach Smith. “That’s just the way playoffs go: sometimes you don’t play as good and you find ways to win, and other times you play great and you don’t win. You’ve just got to stay with it.
“Everyone knows in North Bay, you’re never going to get a freebie in here," Smith added. "You’re never going to get a freebie at home against them. Both teams are going to continue to push and this series is going to go right down to the end.”
The series now turns into a best-of-three as the two teams travel south to resume play on Friday night at the General Motors Centre. Game six is scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
Battalion vs Generals Game 4 April 29th, 2015 from Chris Dawson on Vimeo.
