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Brazeau nets his 50th in comeback OT win in Windsor

Brazeau nets two in big road win
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Justin Brazeau puts in his 49th. Photo courtesy Sean Ryan.

It’s only been accomplished by two players who have worn a Battalion uniform. A 50 goal season; and both Justin Brazeau and Mike Amadio accomplished the feat in big road wins for the Troops.

When Mike Amadio scored at 12:34 of the first period against the Sudbury Wolves on March 18th 2016, it marked the first time a player had reached the 50 goal plateau. It gave the Troops a 2-0 lead in an eventual 4-3 overtime win, in the second last game of the season.

Brazeau’s goal on Saturday night in Windsor was scored unassisted just 19 seconds into the third period, to tie the game 3-3 against the Spitfires, in what eventually became a 4-3 overtime win for North Bay.

Brazeau recalled watching Amadio score his record setting goal as a rookie, “I got to watch it first hand and it was something really special,” recalled Brazeau. 

“I’ve kept in touch with Mike over the last couple of years and after my first year he told me ‘I’m up next’ and I feel I’ve fallen into his footsteps.”
It’s not just the goal scoring that Brazeau has picked up from Amadio as he credits the way Amadio led the team, on and off the ice. He says “it was nice to see the way he handled himself every single day.”

Now with the Los Angeles Kings, forward Mike Amadio says he’s excited for his former teammate. Via social media, Amadio says “It’s awesome to see him score that many and hopefully more before the end of the year.”

Brazeau now has ten games remaining to set a new franchise record for goals in a season.

Amadio added “I’ve been following him all year and he’s grown into a high level goal scorer. He was quite around the rink his rookie year when I was there, but I knew he was going to be a good player.”

The 50th for Brazeau was his second of the game, breaking a five game drought in which he had just one assist. Brazeau says “it feels pretty good, that’s probably one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in a game. To have it break my slump, you know the last couple of games I wasn’t generating much so it definitely felt good to get that one.”

Not only did Brazeau help tie the game, he helped finish the game in overtime. With three-on-three play, the Spitfires didn’t line up against Brazeau on the face-off. That allowed the Battalion Captain to move into the offensive zone and on a panicked back check, the Spitfires left Matthew Struthers wide open in front of the net. 
Brazeau fed the puck through the slot and gave Struthers an easy tap in to finish the game just six seconds into the extra frame.

“I saw that they lined up on the opposite side of Braz, so I tried to win the face-off to him,” says Struthers who finished the game with his 26th goal of the season.

“Usually good things are going to happen [when Brazeau gets the puck and open ice] and I saw that he had a one on one so I tried to beat my guy to the net and I just buried the rebound.”

It’s the first time the North Bay Battalion have won a game at the WFCU against the Spitfires. It’s also the first time the franchise as a whole has beaten the team in Windsor since October 30th 2004 when former Battalion Assistant Coach Ryan Oulahen netted the game winner in a 3-2 victory for Brampton.

With a 6-4 loss to the Sudbury Wolves, the Barrie Colts fail to gain any ground on the Battalion in the Eastern Conference standings. The win now puts the Battalion into 7th in the Conference, two ahead of the Peterborough Petes and five clear of the Colts.

Brazeau says the team realizes how big these two points were to get, considering they entered play just three ahead of the Colts.

“Anytime you get points on the road it’s a big deal, especially with Barrie’s win last night," Brazeau noted. 

“It’s a good job of us to come back and get that win." 

The Spitfires entered the third period with a 3-2 lead, and was undefeated in regulation play when leading after 40 minutes, sporting a record of 20-0-1-0. 

“We started off really slow out of the gates, but after we found our legs in the last five minutes of the first we carried that into the second period and got some key goals,” stated Battalion assistant coach Scott Wray. 

The first of those was also from Brazeau. His 49th of the year tied the game 1-1 at 2:42 of the second period.

Two minutes later, Cameron Peters found a loose puck in the neutral zone and brought it toward the Spitfires net, beating goaltender Colton Incze for his second goal of the season, and a 2-1 North Bay lead.

But at 11:31 of the second, Tyler Angle (9) scored his second power play goal of the game, and Jordan Frasca (9) regained the lead for the home side at 18:08.

Wray says, “Windsor came in to North Bay and beat us 4-2 [on January 31st] and it was a game we trailed 4-0 at one point, but we got down tonight, and we didn’t quit.”

“We could’ve just put our tail between our legs and shut it down, but we didn’t we kept playing and the guys knew we needed the points.”

Christian Propp was tested often over the 60 minutes, making a number of key saves and stopping 40 shots overall.

 “Propp played well, we got solid goaltending and we did what we had to do,” Wray said. 

It’s the first road win for the Battalion since a 7-2 victory on January 12th against the Peterborough Petes. That was the last game of an 11 game point streak for North Bay which was snapped the next night in a 2-1 loss to Kingston.

The Troops were outshot 43-31 and didn’t get any chances on the power play while they went 2/4 on the penalty kill.

North Bay’s road trip continues on Sunday afternoon as they head to London to play the Knights, the first place team in the Western Conference. 
You can catch that game on Country-600 CKAT, broadcast time is 2 p.m.


Matt Sookram

About the Author: Matt Sookram

Matthew Sookram is a Canadore College graduate. He has lived and worked in North Bay since 2009 covering different beats; everything from City Council to North Bay Battalion.
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