The North Bay Battalion took on divisional rivals Mississauga Steelheads in a Sunday matinee looking to put some distance between them and did that with a 4-3 overtime victory.
The Battalion (25-22-6-2) came into this game sitting at 58 points, good for fifth in the conference, whereas the Steelheads (24-28-0-3) sat at 50 points, fighting for their playoff lives at eighth in the conference and looking to avenge the last meeting between these two teams. That game saw Mississauga lead 3-0 halfway through the first, only to lose the game 5-3.
The game played out how you would expect a divisional rival game to play out. Both teams making big hits and exciting plays.
The first period started out with a frantic pace to it, and North Bay would strike first with Brandon Coe one-timing a nice feed from Luke Moncada.
A few minutes later, on what seemed to be a icing call, was waved off and the puck took a strange bounce right to the stick of Florida Panthers draft pick, Owen Tippett, who tied the game for the Steelheads at one.
With less than a minute to play in the first, Superman himself made an appearance as Justin Brazeau powered himself around the Mississauga net to score his 34th on Steelheads goaltender Emanuel Vella to give North Bay the 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
Early in the second, a strong shift by the Brazeau - Struthers - Burghardt line led to a top corner goal by Luke Burghardt, North Bay going up 3-1.
Halfway through the second, after a missed penalty shot by Adam McMaster, the bad blood would boil over as Luke Moncada took down Ryan McLeod, which would lead to scrum between the two teams.
From there, the physicality would pick up again, and after Mississauga having a two-man advantage, Owen Tippett would score his second, after Christian Propp made a huge save, cutting the lead to 3-2.
Regulation would end with the two teams tied, and overtime was on the slate. Mississauga controlled most of the extra frame, but on a creative play by Justin Brazeau led to Brad Chenier putting in the winner and giving the victory to the Battalion.
“That’s a big game for us, we were happy with the one point going to overtime, but we really wanted the second point with them close to us in the standings," said Brazeau post game.
"We have to do a lot of the same things we did here today, tomorrow against Oshawa and then we can’t take Sudbury for granted Wednesday as there is nothing more that they would like to do than beat us and spoil our playoff push,” added Brazeau who was also third star of the game and big reason why the team came away with two points.,
“We need to learn how to finish teams off.” Head Coach Stan Butler was quick to point out during his post-game scrum.
“I thought we played pretty well, and Mississauga is a pretty good team. I think the guys on our team have worked extremely hard and are being rewarded for their efforts.”
The Battalion has closed a 14 point gap between them and the Niagara Ice Dogs in ten games and now sit fourth in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Troops are back in action tomorrow as they head to Oshawa to take on the Generals in a Family Day matinee that can be heard live on Country 600 CKAT and seen on Your TV at 2.
