A day after he was snubbed from the Ontario Hockey League Coaches Poll, Dalyn Wakely went out and had himself a game. Recording his first career playoff hat-trick he paved the way for the Troops to take a 3-1 series lead after a 5-4 victory in game four over the Kingston Frontenacs.
The first round series heads back to North Bay with an opportunity for the Troops to send themselves into the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
On Tuesday, the annual coach's poll was released which ranks players around the league in a variety of categories and somehow, Wakely, who finished third in league scoring with 104 points, a 55-point improvement on his 30-goal season a year ago, was inexplicably not chosen in any of those categories. The categories included Most Underrated Player, Most Improved Player, Smartest Player, Hardest Worker, and Best Playmaker among others. Maybe this writer is a little biased, but for the last three years North Bay fans have been fortunate to see this former second-round pick excel and exceed all the expectations and blossom into a star right before their eyes. Wakely deserves more recognition and could have, and should have, been named in several of those categories.
At the very least there were a few other deserving Battalion who were recognized. That included the team's top scorer Anthony Romani who placed first in two different categories (Smartest Player, Most Dangerous in Goal Area) as well as second in another (Best Shot). Ty Nelson (Offensive Defenceman), Owen Van Steensel (Most Underrated), Liam Arnsby (Defensive Forward) and Paul Christopoulos (Shot Blocker) were also first place finishers. Goaltender Dom DiVincentiis was second in both Best Puck-Handling Goaltender and Best Shootout Goaltender.
DiVincentiis was not in the starting lineup for a second straight game after leaving game two, while Romani has been out since he left game one, both players injured during those respective games. But the Troops were reinforced with veteran forward Andrew LeBlanc getting into his first game since March 20th, and backup goaltender Mike McIvor was solid for much of the game and has done his job since being thrust into action in the second period of the second game of the series.
He made 17 saves in that contest, allowed three first period goals in game three, but settled in and kept the Battalion in the game on Monday stopping 23 of 26 shots in the 4-1 loss and followed that up with 17 saves on Wednesday evening in game four.
The defence also looked a little more like themselves, limiting the Fronts chances in the first period and despite the Frontenacs getting a goal while they were on a five-minute major power play in the second, the Troops hung in, in a tough situation that saw their Captain Liam Arnsby ejected for a check to the head. They were equally as impressive in the first half of the third, with Kingston pressing to erase the deficit, the Battalion didn’t give them much until a power play goal with just over six minutes to play to cut the lead to two.
With the Troops up 5-3 the Frontenacs pulled their goaltender with over two minutes to play, and it paid off when Jax Dubois (1) beat McIvor at 18:03, cutting the lead to 5-4. But that’s as far as they would get and after a frantic few minutes to end the game the Battalion came away victorious.
Wakely’s hat-trick is the fourth playoff hat-trick a Battalion player has recorded in a post-season series against the Frontenacs, and four of the last five have come against Kingston.
Justin Brazeau recorded four goals in Game Five of the Conference Quarterfinals on March 31, 2018. In the Conference Semi-Finals in 2022, Mitch Russell scored three in Game One of that series on May 6th, and four days later Kyle Jackson netted three of is own on May 10th in Game Three of that series. The last hat-trick before Wakely's belonged to Kyle McDonald who put in three against Mississauga on April 9th, 2023 in Game Six of the Conference Quarter Finals.
Wakely opened the scoring at 5:27, cutting across the blue line, finding open space near the hash marks and shooting low stick side for his fourth of the post-season. At 14:42 Wakely stole a puck inside the near side faceoff circle and promptly put it behind Kingston goaltender Mason Vaccari, making the Fronts pay for the sloppy play in their own zone and giving North Bay a 2-0 lead.
Less than a minute later, another bad play in the defensive zone led to a great result for the Troops. The Fronts attempted a pass out of the zone which Ihnat Pazii blocked. He then slid the puck over to a wide-open Lirim Amidovski (1) who blasted the one-timer for a 3-0 lead for the Battalion.
Wakely finished off the hatty right after Van Steensel, who only took three draws all game, was waved into the circle for Wakely and he promptly won the offensive zone draw over to the regular centreman and Wakely used the traffic in front to screen Vaccari and put the Troops up 4-0. Van Steensel would finish the game with three assists.
Jacob Battaglia (3) got the Frontenacs on the board with a power play goal at 11:26 and Nathan Poole (1) cut the lead in half with a shorthanded goal at 15:30.
Brice Cook (2) regained the three-goal advantage on that same power play, burying a rebound off a Jacob Therrien shot.
The Battalion outshot the Frontenacs 31-21 and went 1/3 on the power play and 2/4 on the penalty kill in front of 2718 fans at Slush Puppie Place.
The Troops and Frontenacs will battle with the series on the line in game five on Friday at Memorial Gardens. The last time the Battalion won a series in five games was in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2022 when they defeated the Frontenacs.
