It was as big of a regular season game that you could get. The Central Division and Eastern Conference Leading Sudbury Wolves were in town, squaring off against the North Bay Battalion for the final time this season and to say there was something to play for might be an understatement.
“There’s probably a lot of excuses we could’ve had in a game like this (playing in Barrie last night, losing an hour of sleep due to daylight savings time) but you come out, the buildings packed, the energy is going, the rivalry is right there and right from the drop of the puck we were in this hockey game,” says Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen following his teams 4-2 victory over the Eastern Conference and Central Division rivals the Sudbury Wolves.
The win for North Bay (34-20-6-2) gives them 76 points with six games to play, and they are now just one point behind Sudbury (35,20-4-3) who also have six games remaining on their schedule.
“I’m really proud of my team right now,” says Oulahen. “Everybody had a really good game here today.”
The usual top line of Anthony Romani, Dalyn Wakely and Owen Van Steensel wasn’t together as Wakely was held out because he was sick.
“In typical Dalyn fashion, he tried to do everything he could to get into this game. He didn’t want to miss it. But when you’ve got nothing in you, you’ve got nothing in you,” says Oulahen.
And in his absence, the team rallied.
“We had a lot of guys step up to the plate here. We had so many underrated guys step into roles they haven’t been in all year. The top line wasn’t together and we put (Ethan) Procyszyn in that first line centre role and he response by playing a monster game,” says Oulahen.
Procyszyn had assists on the first two goals of the game and finished +1 on the evening with two shots. After Dalibor Dvorsky opened the scoring for the Wolves at 3:53, Procyszyn picked up his first helper by winning a battle for the puck behind the net before sliding it over to Brice Cook (13). Cook took the puck from the circle, walked into the slot and fired on net, getting it past Wolves netminder Marcus Vandenberg to tie the game 1-1.
In the second period, the Battalion were given an early power play opportunity and they took full advantage. They pressured the Sudbury penalty kill with a bevy of chances on net and with bodies collapsing around the crease, Procyszyn got a clean pass to Sandis Vilmanis who sent the puck into the open side of the net to give the Troops a 2-1 lead 47 seconds into the period. Vilmanis (32) has continued to be a terrific trade deadline acquisition for this club and he wasn’t done finding the scoresheet.
After Alex Pharand (14) tied the game at 7:32 of the second. Vilmanis (32) took back the lead for North Bay at 13:54.
The recently signed Florida Panthers prospect fired another puck from the left side circle that found its way into the net to make it 3-2 for the Battalion, who would go on to outshoot the Wolves 41-28.
In the third, the Troops shutdown the Wolves offense, which has been a tall task for a majority of the league this season as Sudbury has poured in 290 goals this year, which is by far the best mark in the Eastern Conference – the Battalion sit second in that category with 269 following Sundays contest.
Despite the Wolves being one of the top scoring teams in the entire OHL the Battalion was able to stymie and frustrate that offence by playing tough in front of their own net and taking away chances within the ‘home plate area’ in the defensive zone, especially as the game moved into the later stages.
“They generate the most offense by a country mile in the league and a lot of that offense comes from within that area on the ice," explained Oulahen.
"They are a very talented and dangerous team and to have success against them you have to do a good job on your back pressure and clog up the middle of the ice. We made a couple of tweaks that we thought might work today, and give our guys credit because they were dialed in."
The Battalion sealed the victory with an empty net goal at 18:34 of the game, courtesy of Justin Ertel (25) who had a three-point night, with two assists earlier in the contest.
Dom DiVincentiis (23-9-3-1) made 26 saves in the win for the Battalion who went 2/4 on the power play and 1/1 on the penalty kill in front of 4056 fans at Memorial Gardens.
There’s no denying this was a big game, and both teams knew it as the Troops Captain Liam Arnsby dropped the gloves 38 seconds into the first against Sudbury’s Andre Anania and the feeling among most of the fan base is there is a lot of hope that this wasn’t the last time these two teams see each other before the curtain closes on the 2024 hockey season.
It was easily the biggest game between these two clubs since the Troops inaugural season in North Bay, when the Battalion were able to clinch the Central Division title following a win over the Wolves in Sudbury during the last week of the season.
While this win doesn’t give the Battalion the same gratification, it does set them up for what will be an exciting two-week sprint to the finish line as both the Central Division Title and the top spot in the Eastern Conference are still very much in play for North Bay.
