That might be as good of a response as any the North Bay Battalion have had this season. One night after being beat down by the potent offence of the Kitchener Rangers, the Troops kept the Niagara IceDogs in check for the majority of the 60 minutes and left St. Catharines with a 3-1 victory; their third of the season against their Central Division rivals.
The game was scoreless through the first two periods of play before Luke Moncada finally broke the goose egg and floated a puck under the pads of Niagara netminder Andrew MacLean for the games opening marker at 13:40.
“It was a little bit of a broken play in the middle of the zone,” says the Battalion Captain.
“(Battalion Head Coach Ryan) Oulahen has been talking about karma for a while now and I saw (Brandon) Coe back door and I tried to get it over to him but luckily it went off the d-man’s shin pad and just squeaks through the goalie and I think that’s just a bit of good karma for all the hard work that we as a team had put in.”
And early on in the game it felt like it was going to be the hardest working team that would get the two points as the Battalion and the IceDogs forced each other to grind through the first forty minutes, as good scoring chances were coming at a premium.
Niagara outshot North Bay 9-6 but the story of the first period was the physicality being dished out on both sides. At one point Simon Rose got called for interference as Niagara tried to enter the Battalion zone and his hit caught a Niagara player a little high. Elijah Roberts took exception to that play and went after Rose but Troops newcomer Avery Winslow stepped up for his defence partner and threw some shots back at Roberts. That ended up with all three of those players in the box with the latter two for roughing.
About 30 seconds later Mitchell Russell ran into Ivan Lodnia in the Niagara zone and the result was a five minute major for kneeing and a game misconduct as well. The IceDogs couldn’t capitalize on the man advantage and cooler heads prevailed going into the locker room.
More of the same followed in the second period including a short-lived tilt between North Bay rookie Liam Arnsby and 19-year-old Jackson Doherty near the end of the second. Arnsby held his own and got some good shots in on Doherty, before Arnsby appeared to lose his footing and went down to end the fight.
All told, the first two periods had 33 PIMs combined between the two teams and no resulting power play goals.
These teams had already met three times prior to Saturday night’s contest in St. Catharines at the Meridian Centre and the last two games were very back and forth, tight affairs with Niagara getting the latest win 9-8 in overtime on January 2nd and North Bay getting wins of 4-3 on November 24th and 8-2 on October 12th.
“They’re in our division and we play them six times so I feel like the North Bay-Niagara rivalry you get your hate on for them pretty early on in the season,” says Moncada.
“Both teams just want to compete and battle and stay in the game and that’s why most of the games have been tight. They got the better of us the last time with just a few seconds remaining in overtime so it’s nice to come out with the win this time,” he added.
Keeping the Battalion (20-30-2-0) in the game was their own goaltender Joe Vrbetic who had a very calming presence in net for most of the game. His rebound control was much improved compared to the night before and he was pushing everything to the perimeters and away from the scoring areas.
He stopped everything that came at him until Anthony Agostinelli (3) brought the puck over the blue line with less than a minute to play and blasted the puck from just inside the point that found it’s way past Vrbetic, cutting the lead in half.
That followed an empty-net goal from Moncada (23) that came at 18:57 putting North Bay up 2-0 at that point. Moncada then finished the scoring and recorded his second career hat trick scoring another empty-net goal at 19:24 right off the ensuing face-off from the Agostinelli goal.
For Moncada that gives him 24 on the season and for a guy that was regarded as more of a defensive, bottom-six forward when the season began, it truly shows that putting in the hard work and trusting in yourself is going to bring good results down the road.
“When you come into the league you want to make your mark and help your team win games,” says Moncada.
“I felt like the last couple of years I’ve played more of a defensive role and then coming into this year and looking at the roster, I felt there was an opportunity for me to open up the offensive side of my game. I’m really happy for myself, but it also doesn’t surprise me because I know I’ve put in a lot of work in the summer and a lot of work as the season progresses and so I’m really happy to be contributing offensively a bit more.”
Being named Captain midway through what’s already been a long season can’t be an easy task to put on any player, but Moncada is wearing it with pride and is a direct reflection of this new regime getting that extra bit of effort out of its players.
As Captain, Moncada knows the personal accolades are great but at the end of the day it’s the team as a whole that needs to see more results like the one against the IceDogs, “I know the teams not doing so well but when I can help my team win games, that’s when I’m at my happiest”
The win also snaps a six-game losing streak as they get set to host their northern geographical rivals this coming weekend. They play a home and home with Sudbury on Thursday and Friday before hosting the Soo Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon.
