North Bay Battalion forward Nick Moutrey battles for position in front of Oshawa Generals goaltender Ken Appleby in the Generals' 4-1 win in game five on Friday night. PHOTO COURTESY OF SEAN RYAN
The Oshawa Generals power play lived up to its name for the second straight game of the OHL Eastern Conference Final on Friday night.
The Gens converted on three of eight opportunities with the man advantage to bounce the North Bay Battalion 4-1 and win game five at the General Motors Centre for the 3-2 series lead.
Centre Anthony Cirelli had his breakout performance of the playoffs, scoring the game-winning goal on the power play in the second period and adding an assist on his squad's first goal.
Fellow forwards Matt Mistele, Cole Cassels and Hunter Smith added the other three tallys for the Generals, who are the first team to win consecutive games in the series. Cassels and Smith each registered an assist as well.
“They are a very good penalty killing team; they block everything, their goalie’s really good, so that’s a deadly combination, you’ve got to give them credit,” Generals head coach D.J. Smith said after the game. “But if you give us eight power plays, we’re going to score eventually.”
It took the home team just 41 seconds to strike after Mistele found himself in the right place at the right time to bury a big rebound left by Battalion netminder Jake Smith.
That was the wakeup call the Troops needed though, who responded well to the early adversity and pressured the Oshawa net for the rest of the period, ultimately carrying a 15-11 shot advantage after the first frame.
The Battalion played a tight second period as well after Ray Huether scored the sole Battalion strike on a smooth shorthanded two-on-one with Mathew Santos, sending a backhand shot up high on Oshawa goaltender Ken Appleby for his third goal of the series.
But that was the only bright spot on the score sheet for the Troops, who scored more goals in game one of the series than the last four games combined.
Late in the middle stanza, the Battalion fell victim to penalty trouble after Brenden Miller was called for a second consecutive minor penalty, which set Cirelli up for the eventual game-winner.
WIth 16 seconds left in the Generals’ power play, goaltender Smith made the first stop at the end of a pretty Oshawa passing play, but Cirelli was there to pick up the garbage for his first of the post season.
“You get playing your big guys so much that you need some secondary scoring or some guys to fill in a little bit,” said coach Smith. “[Cirelli] just continues to get to the net and hasn’t been rewarded; but tonight, he did.”
The undisciplined play continued in the final frame, with the Battalion committing 11 infractions to the Generals’ five, which Oshawa continued to capitalize on.
First, after Riley Bruce was assessed a slashing minor, Cassels was fed a perfect pass for a one-timed tally, his first of the series.
Then, just seven minutes later, Ryan Kujawinski was given a game misconduct for a knee-on-knee with Oshawa defenceman Mitchell Vande Sompel, who left the ice labouring his leg and did not return.
On the ensuing power play, the Generals put on a display of patient puck movement, which Smith finished off for his sixth of the post season.
As the period played out, Zach Bratina and Mike Baird were assessed unsportsmanlike misconducts and were sent to the dressing room prematurely.
The remaining Troops found themselves in too deep of a hole to recover from, failing to respond to the three straight power play goals by the Generals.
“You’re trying to come back in a game and you’ve got to get some momentum, but if you’re killing [penalties] all the time you’re using your top guys to kill," Battalion head coach Stan Butler said in the post game press conference. "When you do that they’re obviously not going to have much left when it’s time to be in an offensive position.”
The North Bay boys failed to score in even strength and on their six power play opportunities, now falling to 1-for-16 with the man advantage this round.
“If we were playing football, maybe we would have declined our power plays tonight,” Butler said sarcastically.
Oshawa goaltender Appleby also continued his fine form with a first-star performance, stopping 36 Battalion shots on the evening.
“We’ve just got to regroup,” said Butler. “We’ve got another game on Sunday and we’ve got to find a way to win and, if we do that, we get the opportunity to come back here on Monday and go at it again.”
With the loss, the Troops are now on the brink of elimination and will fight for their season in game six at Memorial Gardens on Sunday afternoon. If the Battalion are going to advance, they will have to win back-to-back games for the first time this series.
“These guys are hungry, as is North Bay,” said the Generals bench boss. “To put a team away, to end their season, is a tough thing to do in their building.
“I don’t have to say much, Stan doesn’t have to say much at this time of the year; it’s in the players' hands,” Smith concluded.
Game time Sunday is 2 p.m
