Battalion forward Nick Paul salutes the crowd after scoring the series winning goal against the Niagara IceDogs on April 1st, 2014. In that series the Battalion came back from a 3-1 series deficit. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
It’s an unusual circumstance for the 2015 playoff version of the North Bay Battalion.
After sweeping the Frontenacs in 4 games and then disposing of the Colts in 5, the road to the Conference Final was pretty close to perfect for the North Bay squad.
Last year the Battalion swept the Oshawa Generals to make it to the OHL final for the first time since 2009. This year the Generals, who have not been to the OHL final since 1997, can punch their ticket to the final with a win in game six at Memorial Gardens.
The Generals took a 3-2 series lead thanks to a 4-1 win at home over the Troops in game five on Friday night.
Those who were part of the memorable Battalion run to the finals last year will likely draw on their experience from the first round of the OHL playoffs in 2014. That’s when the Troops fell behind 3-1 against the Niagara IceDogs, only to come back and win the series in seven games.
In that final game, the Battalion fell behind 1-0 after 40 minutes only to muster a huge third period comeback as Alex Henriksson and Nick Paul scored goals less than five minutes apart to complete the comeback.
Will there be another hero in 2015?
Well one thing is for sure the Troops will need to stay out of the box if they want to force a game 7.
“We can’t take penalties like we have and I think part of that is you have to adjust as the standard tonight was different than the (officiating) standard in the first four games and that’s find and that’s great but to change something in the middle of the series it makes it tough on the guys but now we know where the standard is at going forward and Saturday we will re-adjust and get ready for game six,” said Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler whose team gave the Gens eight power plays which they converted on three times in game five.
Turn up the Huether
Battalion forward Ray Huether continues to be a key part of the Battalion offence in this series. He tallied the only goal for the Troops, his third of the series to even the score at 1-1 in the second period of game five.
The overage forward, acquired early in the season from the Sudbury Wolves, is looking forward to some redemption on home ice Sunday afternoon.
“Tomorrow is a new day we just have to get past this game and enjoy our home barn and hopefully we go in strong there and we get the win,” said Huether during Friday’s post game press conference.
