In a building they hadn’t won in, in six seasons. With their record at 1-17-0 away from home. Against a team that doesn’t give up a lot of goals.
The North Bay Battalion came from behind for an overtime win in Oshawa, defeating the Generals 6-5.
Liam Arnsby’s second career OHL goal will be a memorable one for him as he flipped the puck toward the Oshawa goal at the blue line. With Kyle Jackson streaking across the slot, the goaltender Zachary Paputsakis was screened and the puck went off his body, over his shoulder and trickled into the back of the net to finish the game 2:51 into the overtime period.
“It was a crazy play,” said Jackson.
“I gave the puck to Arnsby and went to the net, he threw it on the net and I think it went off the goalie's stick. I saw it go in the air, saw it go in and it was just a great feeling.”
Jackson gave North Bay their only lead of the game before the game-winning goal when he scored his 6th of the season at 8:56 of the second period. It’s back to back games with a goal for Jackson and more continued improvement from a line of two 16 year old’s in Arnsby and Alex Christopoulos and 17 year old Jackson.
It is a fact that hasn’t been lost on Head Coach Ryan Oulahen, “that’s what is exciting to see.”
“Right after the game we said, we got the win in overtime and look who we have on the ice. It’s pretty exciting moving forward because those are going to be the guys carrying us as we move along. We want to give them those opportunities because they earned it, they deserve it. They had a heck of a hockey game and it was fitting that they ended it for us.”
Every time that line was on the ice, they were pushing the Generals to their limit. They gave no easy entries and generated plenty of offensive opportunities for the Troops who are now 8-26-0 on the year, but 3-3-0 since the coaching changes.
It was a game that needed just about everyone to contribute to get the win, their first on the road since October 12 against Niagara.
After going down early when Brett Neumann (24) scored 1:08 into the game, North Bay answered back with Brandon Coe (12) getting his first of the season at 4:15 to tie the game before Jackson gave North Bay the lead.
Oshawa answered back and the game was tied at two after the first twenty minutes.
Oshawa then scored twice more in the second before the half-way point of the period, but the Troops stormed right back.
First, it was the Captain Brad Chenier (17) who got a pass in the low slot from Luke Moncada off the rush. Chenier was running out of real estate and starting to fall off balance but still managed to make a stickhandled move in front of the Oshawa netminder and pulled it to the glove side, around the pad and into the back of the net.
Chenier commented on the team not getting down on themselves when they get behind in the game, “it defines what we bring to the table. Down 4-2 but we battled back in the second and then we get a late one to tie it. Obviously the guys never quit and we got the result we wanted tonight.”
Mason Primeau (8) tied the game at 4-4 when he backhanded a shot under the five-hole of Paputsakis after Mitchell Russell made a tremendous pass getting it around a sprawling defender coming through the slot on the back check, and feeding it right onto the tape of Primeau.
Oshawa took the lead at 8:09 of the third, but North Bay’s pushback the rest of the period was commendable and the hard work paid off when Coe (13) got his second of the game with just 12 seconds left on the clock in the third when he found a loose puck at the side of the net and bounced it the sprawling goaltender to even things up once again, this time 5-5.
“I’m pretty proud of our pushback all night long,” says Oulahen.
“We didn’t get down when we got behind, we kept crawling back and I really thought we deserved the victory. I thought we generated a lot and I thought that might have been our most complete 60-minute hockey game.”
Oulahen adds that now it is showing the team that continuing to push back and never going into a lull is going to have positive results more often than not.
“I think what we’re preaching and the habits that we’re trying to build here, I think you’re going to have success for the kids to believe that, but now we’re starting to have that success slowly, but it’s a good change for us,” says Oulahen.
This new-look coaching staff is looking at every game as a new opportunity for the team to learn something and carry positive momentum forward.
Tonight they approached that opportunity and overcame the challenge.
“Oshawa is an older veteran team that plays hard and plays physical. So we were pretty excited about the challenge coming in and having the ability to play with them, get into battles and play in their building where we haven’t played well on the road.”
Cameron Lamour got the win between the pipes for North Bay, in just his second start in a Battalion uniform, making 28 saves on 33 shots.
The Troops will look to use this momentum as they ring in the New Year with an afternoon contest on Tuesday at home against Sudbury.
