Two nights after a thrilling overtime loss to the Niagara IceDogs the North Bay Battalion turn in a dull, underwhelming performance against the Barrie Colts in a 6-1 defeat at the hands of their Central Division rivals.
“I thought we got off to a really good start,” says Battalion Assistant Coach Scott Wray.
“I thought we had our legs early but losing Brad Chenier to that ejection really hurt and it really took the wind out of our sails.”
Brad Chenier only got to play about nine minutes of the game after he was called for checking from behind and given a game misconduct as a result at the 11:13 mark of the first period. It was scoreless at that point, but the penalty awarded the Colts a five minute major which they promptly scored on. Tyson Foerster received a pass from Ryan Suzuki at the top of the right side face-off circle and he blasted the puck past Battalion Goaltender Joe Vrbetic for his 21st of the season and a 1-0 lead for the home side.
However, that was the only goal the Colts would manage to get on the five minute major and the Troops played the Colts well in a tight-checking first period.
“We did a good job killing off the remainder of those five minutes,” says Wray.
“I know we gave up the one goal but, just the one goal in five minutes that is still a positive.”
But what will never be a positive is the way in which the Colts scored their second goal of the game.
Late in the first, Foerster forced the puck off the stick of Nick Grima who was trying to get it over the Barrie blue line from inside the neutral zone. The turnover created a 2-on-1 rush that Luke Bignell (9) finished off.
“Those ones kill you,” says Wray. “And it happened again in the second. They are killers. First three minutes of the period and last three minutes of the period, you have to take pride in being the guy that wants to be out there in those moments. Otherwise, it can be heartbreaking when you don’t produce.”
The goal in the second period came at 18:29 when Jason Wilms (18) scored on another odd-man rush into the North Bay zone.
Barrie took a penalty after that play when Christopher Cameron dropped the gloves and sucker-punched Cameron Peters who was coming to the corner after Cameron got his gloves in the face of Josh Currie. The result was six minutes of minor penalties to Cameron; four for roughing and then two for high sticking. For some reason, Peters also got called for roughing. But never came back into the game.
North Bay couldn’t capitalize on the power play near the end of the second and even though it carried over into the third, it was Barrie who found the back of the net to open up the period. Jack York (2) scoring just 1:56 in on a shorthanded goal that goes back to what Wray said previously about having better starts and better finishes to the period.
Bignell (10) at 16:52 and Oliver Smith (1) at 19:36 rounded out the scoring for the Colts while the Troops lone goal came off the stick of Mitchell Russell (14) at 6:17 of the third to make it 4-1 at that point. It was a nice moment for the Barrie native to get a goal in front of his friends and family in his home town. It also gives him five goals and ten points in his last six games, and that sets a new career-high for goals in a season for the third-year forward.
It felt as if the game turned in the first once Chenier was ejected after his hit. But Wray says that should’ve meant that the team approached the situation with a “next guy up” mentality, but it didn’t turn out that way.
“I think the kids should be looking at is as an opportunity for them to play on that top line and show that they can do it,” says Wray.
“It was one of those games where we just didn’t play our type of hockey. It could come down to a lot of things. It could be the five games in eight days, it could be a mental thing.”
North Bay (9-27-1-0) will have a chance to figure it out when they host the Windsor Spitfires on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gardens.
With the game falling on the same day as Canada looks to play for the Gold Medal at the World Juniors against Russia, the Troops have made a great PR move and said they will open the doors to the Gardens at 12:30 and have the pre-game and start of the Gold Medal game on the big screen for everyone to watch. And they will be providing updates in the arena as the Battalion and Spitfires play.
The team encourages everyone to wear their Team Canada gear as well.
