Propp shines in big Battalion road win over Petes

The North Bay Battalion started their final road trip of the regular season with a 5-1 victory over the Peterborough Petes.

Coming into the game, the Petes (22-37-3-3) had taken two of the previous three meetings with the Battalion (29-26-7-3). The Petes, however, had already been eliminated from playoff contention last Thursday in a heartbreaking 8-7 loss at the hands of the Mississauga Steelheads.

Shortly after puck drop, Battalion defenceman Braden Henderson threw the puck on Petes goalie Dylan Wells, and after a scramble, Brad Chenier would knock in his 17th with a dive to the goal mouth. Whenever the Troops score the first goal of the game, it bodes well for the team as they owned a 17-7-3-3 record when they score first.

Later in the first, Adam McMaster with his speed, drew in two Peterborough players into the corner before feeding Jake Henderson with a great pass to put the Battalion up 2-0.

A minute later, good positional hockey for the Battalion as Luke Burghardt burst over the Petes blue line, before dropping the puck to Justin Brazeau who found a trailing Matthew Struthers to put the Battalion up 3-0 at the end of the first.

A scrum near the beginning of the second period threw the game into a four on four scenario. Ten seconds into the four on four play, a Petes player misfired a dump out off of Matthew Struthers skate and right past Wells and into the net for a 4-0 lead for the Troops. Struthers was credited with his second of the game.

With five minutes remaining into the second, Struthers carried the puck into the Peterborough end and fed Luke Burghardt with a great pass, who made no mistake about it and put North Bay up 5-0.

Around seven minutes remaining in the game, the Peterborough Petes Captain, Logan DeNoble broke Christian Propp’s shutout bid and put the Petes on the board, still trailing 5-1 however and that is how the score would end with North Bay picking up their 70th point of the season.

“I think we proved tonight that we are more than a first period team.” Goaltender Christian Propp told the OHL Tonight.
“I know there are a lot of rumours that we show up for just one period and shut it down but that was not the case tonight. It got a little rowdy at a couple points tonight, but we stayed mature as a group and we had a job to do tonight and we did it.”

The Troops are back in action tomorrow with a potential playoff preview as the Battalion take on the Kingston Frontenacs, which can be heard live on Country 600 CKAT, or watched live on YourTV North Bay.