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Battalion get Stung in overtime by the Sting

Battalion allow two late PP goals which forced OT

Much like Super Bowl viewers, the North Bay Battalion are certainly hungry this time of year. The main difference is, the Troops are hungry for points, not snacks.

Coming into Sunday’s action, the Battalion sat in eighth place with 49 points and a win could see them leapfrog Hamilton and Peterborough for sixth in the East. Unfortunately, the Troops only picked up one point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Sarnia Sting. 

“I thought our guys played hard,” said Assistant Coach Adam Dennis.

“I thought it was a better game than we have played in a little while and I thought we deserved more than the one point. That’s hockey though and sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want.”

“We will take a point though, it’s better than zero.”

A tough pill to swallow was the fact that North Bay owned a 4-2 lead with just under four minutes of play left in the third. What sunk the Troops was two penalties called in the span of 25 seconds of one another. Harrison Caines for slashing and Luke Moncada for hooking.

“It was interesting the way the game was called tonight.” Dennis said on the calls. “Nothing in the first two periods and then obviously the calls late put a damper on our lead.”

The Troops certainly started the game strong, scoring first off the stick of Brandon Coe. His line would add another goal later with Caines getting in on the action. 

“You need to work hard every day.” Coe said about his lines strong play. “You get more chemistry as time goes on and we are clicking right now.”

“We can’t always have our top line scoring all the goals.” Coe added. “We are trying to help out as much as possible.”

“It’s been a storyline for us all year, whenever we can get the other lines adding offence for us it bodes well and normally leads to points,” Dennis said when asked of the play of the second line. 

Simon Rose got the Battalion even with a late goal in the second period to even things at 2-2. It stayed that way until the latter stages of the third period when Justin Brazeau ripped a one timer over the shoulder of Sting goalie Ethan Langevin.  Harrison Caines would score what looked like an insurance marker moments later to make it 4-2. 

The Sting came back with power play markers by Jacob Perreault and Mitch Eliot which evened things at 4-4 with just over a minute left in regulation.  

The Sting controlled the play in the overtime session and Swedish forward Hugo Leufvenius completed the improbable comeback at the three-minute mark of the three-on-three OT session. 

The Sting find themselves fighting for points in the West as well, not being their normal dominant selves.

“We had a great team last year and that’s the way the OHL works, you rebuild the next.” Sting Captain Ryan McGregor said. “I think we have done a good job this year with competing night in and out.”

The Battalion are back in action Thursday when they host the Flint Firebirds.