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Battalion weather Storm for 6th straight win

‘That is a dangerous, fast and skilled team. They play the right way, and it was a hard fought game’

The North Bay Battalion pushed their winning streak to six straight games after a strong 4-2 victory over the Guelph Storm.

“I give them a lot of credit, they are not the hockey team their record show,” Troops head coach Ryan Oulahen remarked. “That is a dangerous, fast and skilled team. They play the right way, and it was a hard fought game.”

“Both teams wanted this one, obviously for us at home which we haven’t been a ton this year and they’re fighting for points, you could feel it. I really liked our third period, it was a sign of a veteran group, coming out and doing what we needed to do for two points.”

After a back and forth opening frame, Guelph looked to open the scoring in the second on a sharp angled shot. However, on further review, it was deemed no goal as a Storm player had interfered with Troops netminder Dom DiVincentiis. Yet, shortly after, on the powerplay, Sasha Pastujov (10) opened the scoring for real on a one timer from the top of the face-off circle during a powerplay. After some good looks late, North Bay retaliated as Ty Nelson (5) squeezed one between the legs of Jacob Oster to tie the game at one heading into the second intermission.

In the third, as alluded to by Oulahen, the Battalion turned it on. Midway through the frame, overage forward Kyle McDonald (8) found the twine to give the Troops the lead. On the ensuing face-off, Guelph managed to get a two on one and almost tied the game if not for a spectacular save by DiVincentiis, who dove to keep the lead intact.

“That was huge,” Oulahen said. “That’s Dom right there. He was excellent all night, but you have to make the key stops at the right time and that gives our bench momentum and I thought we took care of business from that point on. That was a real special save by Dom right there.” 

A minute after the save, Dalyn Wakely (6) extended the lead with a shot from the slot. However, a few minutes later North Bay found themselves in penalty trouble, and Jake Murray (1) buried one behind DiVincentiis to cut the lead to 3-2. Yet, 47 seconds later, Kyle McDonald was on a shorthanded break away and was stopped by Oster, yet Nic Sima (2) came in for the rebound and snuck it past the netminder for the 4-2 win.

North Bay will be in action next on Saturday when they travel to Barrie to reignite the rivalry with the Colts.

“It’s a tough building to win in, but we have a great day to rest and recover tomorrow,” Oulahen explained.

“We had to shorten the bench a little bit too much, so we’ll rest and be ready for Saturday night.”