It was a night across the league in which many underdogs were upsetting the favourites. In the Eastern Conference the 10th place Kingston Frontenac’s defeated first place Ottawa 67’s 3-2. In Sudbury, the 4th place Wolves were downed 1-0 in overtime by the 9th place Barrie Colts. In the Western Conference 6th place Kitchener were 4-3 winners over 2nd place Sault Ste. Marie.
But in an inter-conference matchup it was the West side coming ahead with the 7th place Sarnia Sting defeating the 7th place North Bay Battalion 6-2.
While the win keeps Sarnia in 7th, three points up on Windsor, the loss for the Troops drops them to 8th as they to remain three points up on the next closest competitor, the Barrie Colts.
The tilt at Progressive Auto Sales Arena was back and forth through the first 20 minutes. North Bay came ahead in the shots category 14-6.
“I thought we came out of the gates strong, first period was really good,” says Battalion Assistant Coach Adam Dennis.
“But we had some tough breaks injury wise, and I thought in our second period we had a little bit of a let down.”
The team was playing short handed from the puck drop.
With Daniel Walker, David Maier, Brandon Coe, and Brad Chenier out of the lineup, the Troops relied on two affiliate players to play on their fourth line; Powassan Voodoos Matthew Hardwick and the leading rookie scorer in the Central Canada Hockey League, Kyle Jackson of the Ottawa Junior Senators.
To make matters worse, the Troops then lost a member of their top line as Luke Burghardt was taken out of the game after the first period.
Sarnia took advantage of the depleted Troops roster and scored three times in the second period.
Nick Grima (4) opened the scoring on the power play at 3:13. His point shot went past two Sting players set up right in front of Battalion Goaltender Christian Propp who was completely screened on the play.
Dennis says it was the first goal by Sarnia that really made the game difficult for North Bay, “they scored that first one and our energy levels just really seemed to deplete.”
Dennis says having a shorthanded roster is one of the things that happens over the course of a long OHL season and something the coaching staff are looking to their older guys to make up for.
He says “I don’t think either one of those two kids [Hardwick and Jackson] looked out of place. I thought they played solid and it’s up to our guys to figure it out right now.”
“That’s what hockey is,” Dennis added. “You have 60 minutes to do it and we weren’t able to figure it out tonight.”
North Bay’s Harrison Caines (8) tied the game about four minutes after the opening goal, tipping in a point shot from Simon Rose at 7:44.
It gave Caines a four game point streak, scoring three goals over that span. Dennis says the scoring from Caines “is important” for the teams overall success.
He adds “he’s a young guy but he’s really starting to find his stride. I think he’s been a really big piece for us and he’s one of the guys, with these injuries, who has stepped up and played a big role.”
Outside of the game being scoreless, that was the only time North Bay were even on the board with the Sting, who got back to back goals from Hugo Leufvenius to take a 3-1 lead with about six minutes left to play in the second.
The Battalion got their first power play of the game at 15:43 of the second period, when Mitch Eliot got called for hooking. That seemed to spark the Troops as they started to find consistent offensive zone time and were getting plenty of pucks to the net. Sarnia goaltender Than Langevin stopped them all in the closing moments of the second and carried that 3-1 lead into the dressing room after two periods of play.
Coming out in the third, the Troops were looking to continue their strong effort that finished the second, but it was the Sting finding the back of the net again just 1:59 in.
Franco Sproviero (20) came into the North Bay zone and used a Battalion defender as a screen to zip the puck past Propp. That got the Sting ahead 4-1.
Sean Josling (17) would expand the lead to 5-1 when he positioned himself in front of the net and batted in a puck out of the air after Propp initially made a save, but the puck fluttered upwards and Josling took a healthy swing at it, scoring at 6:19.
Mitchell Russell (11) cut the lead down to three goals when he went right towards the net on a partial break away and slid the puck under the pads of Langevin at 17:08.
North Bay pulled Propp at 17:36 in favour of the extra attacker but Josling scored his second of the game and 18thof the year on the empty net goal at 17:59.
It’s the third straight loss for the Battalion who do not get a long rest. They lace them up again on Saturday night as they play the Windsor Spitfires from the WFCU Centre. You can catch the game on Country-600, broadcast time is 7pm.
