Despite being outplayed for the majority of the first 40 minutes, the North Bay Battalion had an opportunity to tie the game late. But the clock wound down before they could get an equalizer past Ryan Dugas and the Kingston Frontenacs and the result was a 4-3 defeat, their sixth in a row.
It was a case of too many penalties and too late of a comeback as the main obstacles impeding the Battalion on Friday night at the Leon’s Centre. Assistant Coach Scott Wray says they didn’t show up with their best effort until it was already too late.
“We can’t expect to just play the third period and win the game,” said Wray.
“It was very sloppy hockey for two periods and then we felt like really putting the hammer down.”
He says what’s important to the team right now is seeing the players develop game by game and the only way they can accomplish that is through consistent ice time and playing in big situations.
“It’s going to be great for them down the road to experience that, but right now we’re focused on developing who we have and really looking forward to what is going to transpire here," he said.
“We have a lot of good young players in our locker room, we have a great leader in Moncada. Paul Christopoulos on the backend. whose compete level is off the charts. It’s really big for us to have those kids working and playing in scenarios where a lot of kids their age aren’t getting time to play in those scenarios.”
However, the team found it hard to generate any momentum as they had a steady stream to the penalty box throughout the night, resulting in being shorthanded seven times, and Kingston’s game-winning goal coming on a Power Play opportunity 16 seconds into the third period when Zayde Wisdom (23) was set up in front of the net right off the draw and buried the puck after Martin Chromiak found him in front. That gave Kingston a 4-1 lead that they were able to hang on to.
Half the goal-scoring production was the result of power play goals by the Frontenacs. In the second period, Vitali Pinchuck (7) sent home the rebound off a Jake Murray shot giving the Frontenacs a 3-0 lead at 10:54 of the second period.
The last time North Bay was in Kingston, it was the Troops who had a 3-0 lead that ended up in a 4-3 final, only back in November it was the Frontenacs capping off the comeback. This loss also extends North Bay’s losing streak in Kingston to seven years and the franchise as a whole hasn’t won in the Limestone City since Brampton won 7-4 on December 9th 2011. Up until this past Sunday the head to head competition between these teams in the regular season has always resulted in the home team winning, but the Frontenacs broke that seven year trend by claiming a 6-3 win at Memorial Gardens just five days prior.
The Troops did find the back of the net getting on the board at 16:08 when Captain Luke Moncada sent a puck in high towards the net. Frontenacs defenseman Jacob Brahaney went up to catch it, but instead did his best impression Diego Maradona at the 1986 World Cup and punched it over the head of the goaltender and into the back of the net. Maradona’s “goal” came AGAINST his opponents from England while Brahaney’s “goal” was scored on his own team and awarded to Moncada for his 28th of the season.
Down 3-1 going into the third and 4-1 shortly after the period began, North Bay had their best push of the night and were rewarded when Josh Currie came down the right wing side into the Frontenacs zone and played the puck toward a wide-open Harrison Caines (5) who deflected it into the net to cut the lead in half at 4:48.
But Caines was ejected from the game at 7:55 for a slew foot that resulted in a five-minute major penalty for Kingston that they did not score on, but Wray says certainly has a lasting impact on the result of the game.
“Once we got a little momentum we got a bad penalty and so that was tough on us,” said Wray.
He adds, “It tires certain guys out big time and you rely on them to try and get you that tying goal with a minute left but with all the minutes they played killing penalties it just wears on them. 16 minutes spend on the penalty kill, I mean you hope they can find some energy to get that tying goal but that’s what really hurts.”
Following several penalties assessed to both teams, North Bay got their own Power Play goal at 14:18 with the puck coming out from behind the net in front to some traffic and Shane Bulitka (20) got the last touch on the puck before it crossed the goal line, making it a one goal game at 4-3.
But the gap was too much for North Bay to overcome as the Frontenacs built that three-goal lead through the first 30+ minutes of play.
Dawson Baker (9) opened the scoring at 13:21 of the first and Francesco Arcuri (6) made it 2-0 when he received a perfectly flipped pass from Nick Wong that went over everyone's head from the Kingston zone and touched down right onto Arcuri’s tape at the North Bay blue line and he was off to the races and beat Joe Vrbetic on the breakaway.
The Troops (11-37-2-0) will have the day off on Saturday and play the number one team in the Eastern Conference on Sunday afternoon in Ottawa.
