Brandon Coe scored a one-timer on a feed from Theo Calvas to give the North Bay Battalion a 4-3 overtime win over the high flying London Knights at Memorial Gardens Sunday afternoon.
“Brazeau tried to cycle it up the wall and 'Teddy' just made the pass and I pretty much tried to get a shot on net to see what happens and luckily it went in,” said Coe to the OHL Tonight post game.
It was a great finish for a Battalion team that had to fight off a late Nick King tripping penalty that carried over to overtime.
The Battalion was able to kill it off highlighted by a breakaway stop by goaltender Christian Propp on Connor McMichael seconds before the Troops went the other way to end the game.
Assistant coach Adam Dennis believes that shows what this Battalion team is all about.
“This group has been a character bunch all year, it seems when the cards are stacked against them they seem to rise,” said Dennis in his post game press conference.
“I think they took it as an opportunity to challenge themselves to say, ‘hey, we hung with a pretty good team so it would be a shame to let this thing go to waste,’ so our guys came together and killed it off and then they went to work.”
The victory put an end to a short three-game losing streak for the Troops.
Coe hopes this win over the top team in the OHL’s West will spark another Battalion long unbeaten streak.
“We know they are a good team and the loaded up with quite a few players [at the trade deadline] and it is nice to get off a losing skid and hopefully we can keep it going here,” said Coe.
The Battalion, without the services of Daniel Walker and David Maier, played with only 11 forwards and five defence in the win as well.
The Knights opened the scoring near the six minute mark on a Liam Foudy tally.
The Troops answered back as Bradley Chenier netted the equalizer less than two minutes later and Patrick Brown put home a rebound past Joseph Raaymakers in the late stages of the opening period which made it 2-1.
The Knights created a pushback in the middle frame scoring twice including goals by Team Canada defenceman Evan Bouchard and a seeing eye point shot from William Lochead which gave the Knights a 3-2 lead after 40.
The Troops fought back in the third as Matthew Struthers got the teams even at 3-3 at the 4:02 mark of the third period.
The Battalion are back on the ice this Thursday at Memorial Gardens when they face the Sudbury Wolves. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
