The struggles continue for the North Bay Battalion.
Nick Robertson scored a pair of goals, pushing his league lead to 19 total for the season, to guide the Peterborough Petes past the Battalion 8-3 on Sunday afternoon at Memorial Gardens before a crowd of 2,120.
When asked for his overall thoughts on the game, head coach Stan Butler was succinct in his assessment.
“Not very good.”
The Petes jumped on the Troops early, forging a quick 3-0 lead in the first period. North Bay’s best stretch of the game followed, with Alex Christopoulos cutting into the deficit before the end of the first and captain Brad Chenier scoring on a shorthanded breakaway halfway through the second to make it 3-2. From there, it was all Peterborough, who shelled Joe Vrbetic in the Battalion net to the tune of 52 total shots and eight goals against.
“I thought the last ten minutes of the first period was pretty good, then we score a shorthanded goal in the second and up until then, we played pretty well. They scored right after that to make it 4-2 and our guys seemed to give up. The shots the rest of the second period were 18-0. You’re not going to win hockey games in this league if you don’t work hard.”
Peterborough has had the Battalion’s number over the past four seasons, with today’s loss pushing the Troops’ record against the Petes to 3-10-1 since 2016-17. The season before, in 2015-16, the two teams played a hard-fought seven-game playoff which was to date the Battalion’s last playoff series victory. Only a handful of players remain on each team from that series, with the Battalion and Peterborough led at the time by Mike Amadio and Mathew Santos, and Hunter Garlent and Buffalo Sabres prospect Eric Cornel respectively.
With Brandon Coe serving the first game of a two-game suspension for a slew footing infraction incurred Friday against Sudbury, prospect Mat Hardwick was called up from the Powassan Voodoos to fill in the roster spot, netting an assist on a garbage-time goal in the back half of the third. Coincidentally, this game featured another slew footing penalty, assessed in the end to Peterborough’s Michael Little. The match penalty was initially called on North Bay’s Cameron Peters, who went to the dressing room but returned following a long delay as the officiating crew sorted out what had actually occurred. The Battalion was unable to generate much on the ensuing five-minute powerplay.
It was the Battalion’s annual Remembrance Day Salute on Sunday, with the team sporting camouflaged-themed jerseys. Local Paralympic hopeful and armed forces veteran Dave Innes conducted the ceremonial faceoff alongside Tessa Clermont of the Military Family Resource Centre.
The Battalion heads back out on the road next weekend for a trio of games against Western Conference opponents. The docket includes the London Knights on Friday, the Windsor Spitfires on Saturday and the Sarnia Sting on Sunday afternoon.
