The North Bay Battalion welcomes back the Kingston Frontenacs for Ontario Hockey League action at 7 p.m. Thursday, with the both the home and the visitors presenting a new look since the Fronts last trip to Memorial Gardens.
“Kingston’s a much different team than they were a year ago and the team we played in the playoffs,” coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday of the Frontenacs, who boasted the likes of North Bay's Lucas Edmonds, Shane Wright, and Martin Chromiak when the Battalion ousted them in a five-game Eastern Conference semifinal.
“They lose a lot of that high-end skill, but what they are doing now is working extremely hard. They’re competitive. They compete for every puck. They’re playing a different way, and sometimes that makes it harder on you as an opponent.”
The game comes a day after the North Bay Battalion acquired left-winger Josh Bloom and defenceman Brayden Hislop in a blockbuster trade with the Saginaw Spirit.
In the deal for Bloom, Hislop and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection, the Battalion traded right winger Nic Sima, defenceman Cam Gauvreau and five Priority Selection picks, numbering two second-rounders and three third-round picks to Saginaw.
Hislop and Bloom are expected to be in the lineup on Thursday.
See related: Battalion adds Sabres prospect in blockbuster trade
North Bay, which won 3-2 via shootout at Kingston on Oct. 7, saw a league-best seven-game winning streak ended in a 4-3 home-ice loss Sunday to the Kitchener Rangers, a result in which Oulahen saw some benefit apart from a solid third period.
“At this time of year, it’s sometimes good to just have kind of a refocus moment," said Oulahen.
"Sometimes the players need that a little bit, so it allows us to have maybe a little extra detail this week, a little extra buy-in from the guys. It allows us to ramp up the practices a little more, and hopefully, you are better for it in the long run and we get right back on track here tomorrow night."
The Battalion, which visits Kitchener on Friday night and the Owen Sound Attack on Saturday night to complete play this week, has a won-lost-extended record of 12-5-0 for 24 points after one-quarter of the schedule, tied with the Mississauga Steelheads atop the Central Division. Kingston is 9-8-2 for 20 points, third in the East Division.
The Battalion, ranked No. 10 in the Canadian Hockey League Top-10 for a second straight week, remains down two veteran defencemen in Tnias Mathurin and Avery Winslow. Mathurin faces the prospect of surgery this month to correct a shoulder issue.
“It looks like right now he’s going to be out quite a bit longer than we thought,” Oulahen said of Mathurin.
“Avery, we’re not sure exactly the timeline. It won’t be as long as Tnias, but there’s no secret. Those guys in our uniform, in our lineup, are massive, massive pieces, and it’s going to be collectively here that we’re going to have to continue to find ways to gap those holes, and so far we’ve liked what our younger guys have done.”
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