Controversial call helps Generals to game one win over Battalion

It’s a battle between the top two teams in the conference going toe-to-toe for the Bobby Orr trophy. Eastern Conference and East Division Champions Oshawa, taking on Conference runner-ups and Central Division Champions, the North Bay Battalion. With the teams so closely matched up the expectation was that this series would also play out that way and in game one, those expectations came to fruition in a tight contest that ended 4-2 for the home side Generals to take game one of the 2024 Eastern Conference finals.  

After scoring two goals on their first two shots of the game, the North Bay Battalion allowed four straight goals and couldn’t get any back for themselves on Friday night at the Tribute Communities Centre, with 5967 in attendance.  

“It’s really hard I think, and their coach might say the same thing, but I don’t know if I got a really good read on it, just by the way the game went,” said Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen during the post-game when asked about adjustments he would make.

“But in saying that, the way the line matchups are, it seems like what he wanted to do was the same as what I wanted to do and so I don’t think that makes a big difference when it comes to getting the last change. I think within the game, shift-to-shift, outplaying them, having shorter shifts and playing more five-on-five hockey will be enough to do it.” 

Oshawa took the lead in the third period on what many Battalion faithful feel was a blown call by the officiating crew. Generals forward Connor Lockhart knocked over Battalion netminder Mike McIvor and the officials allowed the play to continue in the zone. The puck came back toward the net with McIvor just getting back into position and the puck got by him on a shot from the circle by Luca Marrelli (1) just 1:54 into the third period.  

The play was reviewed with the Battalion arguing McIvor was never able to recover after being knocked down by Lockhart. 

However, after the officials looked at the replay for five minutes, they decided McIvor had enough time where he should have recovered in time to make a save.  

As the game wound down in the third period the whistles were put away, including a couple of plays that were identical infractions earlier in the game not being called, thus leading to the Battalion having to face an up-hill battle in the later stages of the contest.  

McIvor did what he could to keep the Battalion in the game making several big stops after turnovers inside the Troops zone.  

With just under five minutes to play he made back-to-back stops, including a diving stop off Beckett Sennecke. 

Down by a goal with less than a minute to play the Battalion pulled McIvor and had all six attackers touching the puck in the offensive zone, but a mad dash to keep the puck in resulted in the Generals being able to clear the zone and Lockhart (3) scored an empty net goal at 19:18.   

All season Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen has preached about having good starts. It seems that message has been drilled into the players now in the post-season as the Troops picked up right where they left off from their second round series against the Sudbury Wolves and pounced onto the scoreboard quickly against Oshawa.  

They led 2-0 before the five-minute mark of the game thanks to Sandis Vilmanis (6) and the leagues leading goal scorer Dalyn Wakely (12) popping in two quick ones at 3:04 and 4:30 respectively, which continues a trend for the Battalion in which they have scored within their first few shifts of the period.  

It was the 18th time in 10 playoff games in which the Battalion scored at least one goal in the opening six minutes of a period. (I went with six minutes because there are a few goals that are within that five-minute mark).  

The table below shows the goals the Troops scored in the early going of any given period.  

They’ve played in 10 playoff games and have scored a goal within that time frame at least once in every single game. Wakely has done that five times, Justin Ertel has accomplished the feat four times, with Vilmanis doing it three times. Nine of these goals have given the Battalion the lead.  

The Vilmanis goal was just a classic Vilmanis play, bursting through the neutral zone, getting behind the defense and redirecting a pass from Bronson Ride past the glove side of Oshawa’s goaltender Jacob Oster to put North Bay ahead 1-0.  

Wakely followed that up with by following Owen Van Steensel into the zone. Van Steensel came down the left wing, got a short break in towards the goaltender and dangled from left to right just in front of the crease. His shot went off the toe of the goaltender and then up in the air and along came Wakely to bat it in to the back of the net for a 2-0 North Bay lead.  

Wakely was interviewed by the OHL tonight broadcast during the intermission and he said the team had the start they were looking for.  

“We talked yesterday about starting the series right. That was important. Unfortunately, we got into a little bit of penalty trouble, so we just have to get back to playing our game.” 

The Battalion couldn’t consistently keep five guys on the ice, taking four straight penalties from 4:54 to 16:45. A couple of calls felt like they could’ve gone either way, but the last one proved costly for the Troops when Tnias Mathurin was called for slashing behind his own net, while North Bay was already down by a man. 

That gave Oshawa a 5-on-3 power play and 13 seconds later, Stuart Rolofs popped in a gimme goal for his second of the post season. It was an unfortunate goal for McIvor to give up as he made the initial save coming out to the far side post to stop the puck, but it somehow slipped under his arm and just sat on the blue paint before Rolofs spied it and slipped it over the goal line.  

“We just have to play in their end a little bit more, tire them out and make them work for it,” said Wakely. “They were in our end a lot. If we can flip that script in the second, and I think we’ll be good.” 

But it was Oshawa which continued to keep the pressure on the offensive side and at 6:05 Rolofs (3) tied the game scoring on a breakaway goal.  

“We have to do a better job of keeping our sticks on the ice,” said Oulahen. “You never like high stick calls, or the tripping calls and we were taking too much of that. When you can tilt the ice and have the puck a little bit more, you’re not going to be in situtations where you are taking those penalties. I know it sounds simple, but it is hard to do and that is going to be a key.” 

The Battalion were 0/3 on their power play attempts while going 5/6 on their penalty kills.  

“They are an extremely disciplined hockey team,” said Oulahen. “So we are going to have to do a really good job this series of staying out of the box.” 

The Generals outshot the Battalion 33-26. It’s just the second loss in 10 post-season games for the Battalion this year and they are now 25-17 in the opening game of a playoff series all-time, 8-13 as the visitors.  

Game two takes place Sunday evening with a 6:05 p.m. puck drop in Oshawa.