A tough end to what was otherwise a very productive weekend for the North Bay Battalion as they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Frontenacs in Kingston on Sunday afternoon.
Paul Ludwinski (23) scored the game winner with just 10 seconds remaining in the extra frame to give the home side the victory on Ludwinski’s third goal of the night.
The Battalion did not have Justin Ertel, Jacob Therrien or Ethan Procyszyn in the lineup. Ertel was out after suffering an injury in Thursdays game and he also missed the Saturday night contest against the Petes. During the Petes game Jacob Therrien was pulled due to a lower-body injury and Ethan Procyszyn was served with a one game suspension after delivering a hit from behind in the third period.
Playing with seven defensemen and 11 forwards, the Troops fell behind quickly with the Frontenacs getting on the board just over a minute into the first. Jacob Battaglia stole the puck at the Battalion blue line and sent it to the far side circle to Christopher Thibodeau. His shot went off goaltender Dom DiVincentiis and landed on the stick of Ludwinski who was open at the near side post and got to it quicker than DiVincentiis could get across to make the save. Ludwinski’s (21) goal at 1:17 was the 25th time the Battalion had allowed the opening goal of the game and were 11-10-1-1 in those contests going into Sundays affair.
The Battalion tied the game at 6:47 on Romani’s 53rd of the season, finishing off a nifty passing play that started with Owen Van Steensel moving the puck out of the zone and getting a pass ahead to defenseman Tnias Mathurin. Mathurin carried it over the blue line, passed to his right to Dalyn Wakely, who then fed it across the zone to Romani for the shot that tied the game 1-1.
Ludwinski (22) scored his second of the game on the power play at 4:48 and Matthew Soto (23) put the Frontenacs up 3-1 at 6:14 off a low shot taken through a screen in front of DiVincentiis.
Give credit where credit is due as the Battalion, in their third game of the weekend didn’t fall into a hole and stormed back with goals by Sandis Vilmanis and Owen Van Steensel to send the game tied at 3-3 into the third.
The Vilmanis goal was a beautiful deke move, faking the forehand shot, going to the back hand and lifting it up over a sprawling goaltender Mason Vaccari at 10:43.
Van Steensel (40) tied the game at 17:38 with his third short handed goal of the year (and the teams 10th shorty of the season) after a perfect stretch pass was sent in by Wakely to get Van Steensel behind the defence and the third year winger shot up high to beat Vaccari.
It’s now the 38th game this season in which all three guys on the top line have recorded a point in the same game, and they entered the game as the highest scoring trio of forwards in Battalion history.
Short of saying ‘highest scoring line’ since this is one of the few lines that have stayed the same for about 90% of the season, and not factoring in years in which a defenseman finished in the top three in scoring (think of Nelsons 76 points last year that was third on the team or Cam Dineen’s 59 points in 2015-16 that was second on the team) Romani, Van Steensel and Wakely have produced the highest numbers that we’ve seen since the Troops moved north.
Factoring in the points following Sundays defeat, they have combined for 130 goals, 157 assists and 287 points. The next highest scoring threesome is Brandon Coe, Matvey Petrov and Mitchell Russell who combined for 279 points in 2021-2022 – and none of the guys this year are drafted or signed while Coe and Petrov had been drafted prior to that season and Russell was on his way to signing an entry level deal with the San Jose Sharks.
The Troops were 0/4 on the power play on Sunday in Kingston and1/2 on the penalty kill and were outshot 28-23 in front of 3375 fans at the Slush Puppie Place. The Battalion are now 36-20-7-2 on the year with 81 points while Steelheads beat up the Bulldogs on Sunday 7-2 and are now 37-21-8-0 with 81 points.
The Battalion will look to keep racking up the points both individually and as a team as a huge final weekend awaits with Barrie, Mississauga and Peterborough slated as the opponents with North Bay having a game in hand on the Steelheads.
