The North Bay Battalion is continuing its busy week this week starting a home and home tonight against the Mississauga Steelheads at an empty North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The second-place Battalion, which trails the Steelheads by eight points in the Central Division, plays at Mississauga on Friday night before entertaining the Ottawa 67’s on Sunday.
The wounded Troops opened the week with a 3-2 road loss via shootout Tuesday night to the Niagara IceDogs in a game rescheduled from Dec. 18 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting goaltender Dom DiVincentiis was forced from the game at 19:12 of the second period after being struck in the head by Niagara’s Danil Gushchin. Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen, who called it an “ugly play,” said Wednesday that it was too soon to give a firm update on rookie DiVincentiis’s status.
“He’s kind of just getting evaluated, so unfortunately with the quick turnaround I don’t have a ton of information to give you, other than it looks like it’s not very severe, which is really good,” said Oulahen.
On that play, Russian import Gushchin, who earlier was credited with his team-leading 23rd goal of the season, received a major penalty and game misconduct.
See related: Battalion drop shootout decision to IceDogs
Owen Van Steensel, scoring for a second straight game, and Mitchell Russell had the North Bay goals. Joe Vrbetic took the loss in relief of DiVincentiis, who gave up two goals on 20 shots before leaving. Vrbetic faced 10 shots through overtime, in which the Troops outshot Niagara 5-2.
“I thought Tuesday night we probably deserved a little bit better than what we got, especially with the chances we had late in the third and into overtime,” said Oulahen.
The Battalion will get newcomer Kyle McDonald back for the Mississauga visit after he completed a four-game suspension, but fellow forwards Kyle Jackson, Liam Arnsby and Matvey Petrov all figure to remain sidelined with injuries.
“He looks fresh, he looks ready to go, he’s certainly excited, and we’re excited to have him back tomorrow night,” Oulahen said of McDonald.
Oulahen admits it is frustrating without some key forwards, he does admit it has allowed some younger forwards the opportunity to play bigger roles.
“We’ve had some guys really really step up and play their best hockey to date in a Battalion uniform, which is very, very encouraging,” noted Oulahen, who praised Van Steensel in particular but who saw the likes of Michael Podolioukh, Nic Sima and Owen Outwater also do good work.
Mississauga, which has two games in hand on North Bay, has a won-lost-extended record of 24-8-4 for 52 points, while the Battalion, 3-6-4 in its last 13 games, is 19-13-6 for 44 points.
“Wins and losses are always going to swing here and there, but the big focus that we’ve been saying is we can’t stray away from our game even if we’re going to go through some adversity,” said Oulahen, who vowed that the Troops will “continue to scrape and claw.”
The Battalion’s Brandon Coe, who had an assist, emerged from the Niagara game as the OHL’s scoring leader with 25 goals and 39 assists for 64 points, one more than Wyatt Johnston of the Windsor Spitfires. Petrov ranks fifth with 56 points from 22 goals and 34 assists, and Russell has 21 goals and 27 assists for 48 points.
