“We had a game plan going into this one, and I thought, for the most part, we executed it,” Battalion head coach Ryan Oulahen said shortly after the final buzzer.
“We were able to generate a lot of offence and we keyed in on some things. I always give Mississauga a lot of credit. They tend to play extremely hard, and it tends to generate a lot of shots. We didn’t panic, which was great and Joe (Vrbetic) was there when we needed him and we were able to capitalize on what we needed to do.”
North Bay opened the scoring 8:32 into the first period on their first shot of the game. Mitchell Russell, playing in his first game returning from injury, was credited for the marker. It was his first of two on the night. Later in the frame, former first overall pick, Ty Nelson, potted his first career OHL goal, which also counted as the game winner.
“I’m proud of him,” Oulahen said. “Proud of all our guys to hit some of these milestones. Ty’s been really really strong here, and I think that’s going to be a big confidence booster for him.”
“It was a great play overall,” Nelson stated. “We went in on a great forecheck. All I know is I got a great pass from one of our forwards. We’ve been working on putting pucks on net and it went in thankfully.”
“I’m so grateful and happy to finally get back at it. To get that first one under the belt and keep rolling, the boys had a great night tonight.”
Troops netminder Joe Vrbetic had a busy night as he stopped 42 of 43 shot attempts.
“He’s solid,” Oulahen explained. “Pucks seem to hit him and he can deflect pucks to the outside and he gives us a lot of confidence when he’s in the net.”
Other goal scorers for North Bay were Liam Arnsby, Brandon Coe, Paul Christopoulos and Josh Currie.
The Troops are back in action on Sunday when they take on the Barrie Colts. Puck drop is 2:00pm at the Gardens. You can watch live on YourTV North Bay, or listen to the Frontline Broadcast on the Battalion YouTube channel.
