A four goal outburst in the second period was enough to put the Petes comfortably ahead in front of the home fans in Peterborough as they bounced back from a Wednesday night loss in Kingston by defeating the Battalion 8-3.
“As dumb as it sounds, it doesn’t sound like an 8-3 hockey game,” says Battalion Assistant Coach Scott Wray.
“It’s one of those games where you get a block here or there or a save here or there and it’s a much tighter hockey game. I think if we play that same game tomorrow night, we win the game,” he added talking about the Troops Friday night affair with the Frontenacs in Kingston.
It’s the makeup of a young team where one mistake can lead you into a world of trouble, and while the Battalion did make mistakes tonight, they maintained a high compete level with a formidable Eastern Conference opponent.
“We saw a lot of good things today, a lot of things that we worked on this past week in practice, we saw in the game today.”
That’s the other end of the makeup of a young team, executing what was preached and to an extent the Battalion made those efforts pay off, but the tandem of Akil Thomas and Nick Robertson were just too much to overcome.
“We said going into the third period, that we need to learn from those guys. That’s where we want to be,” said Wray.
“They’ve got two World Junior Championship participants over there (Thomas and Robertson) and anyone who says this is a big mans game well Robertson quiets them up big time.”
Robertson (listed at 5’09” and 164lbs) and a five-point night scoring twice and adding three assists.
“He’s relentless on the puck, he loves to score goals, he is determined,” says Wray. He says getting to see Robertson in this atmosphere is something the younger Battalion players have to take note of, if they are going to develop their all-around game.
“Our younger smaller players that are offensively gifted should emulate their game after him. He’s just hard to play against in all three zones and that’s what you want,” says Wray.
Meantime, Thomas got the 100th goal of his career for a three-point night while Declan Chisholm (1+2) and Mason McTavish (2+1) also had three points in the Petes 30th win of the season to give them 63 points on the year.
The Troops fell to 11-36-2-0 on the year despite playing a strong opening road period. They were sent to the penalty box four times in the opening 20, but only allowed the one power play goal against when Chisholm (10) scored right off the draw in the left side circle at 9:29.
Down just 1-0 and after killing off another penalty in the opening minutes of the second, the Troops got on the board when Alex Christopoulos (7) striped goaltender Hunter Jones of the puck behind the Petes net and proceeded to come in front of a wide-open cage and buried the opening tally for the Troops, 6:33 in.
Later in the period with North Bay on the power play it was once again Christopoulos leading the charge as he took a pass right down the middle and cut across to Jones’ blocker side but couldn’t score on the kick save made by the veteran netminder. However, he kicked it too far out into the slot to smother the puck, and that allowed the other Christopoulos, Paul, to take control and fire it past Jones for his third career goal in this rookie season.
“He went in on a breakaway and tried to slip it between the legs,” says Paul about Alex starting the play after he took a great pass from James Mayotte to get him out of the zone.
“The rebound came out and I just followed it up as the third trailer and just tapped it in on the backhand,” he says.
The Christopoulos that mans the blue line has been having a good rookie season in the OHL and he says chipping in offensively is something his coaches have given him the green light to do as long as he picks his spots. For the Christopoulos who plays up front, Alex, that’s his third goal in the last five games.
“I thought my offensive game was pretty good, our line tried to get the team going and everybody was making plays, created nice breakouts and we all worked hard and worked together and that led to that goal,” he says.
He adds he’s been working on his foot speed and his shot with Wray during and after practice and that extra work appears to be paying off. Alex and Paul become the first set of twins to score a goal in the same game for the North Bay Battalion, a record that many expected to happen at some point this season with the two players so highly regarded coming into their first season in the OHL. It was the seventh goal of the season for Alex and third of the year for Paul.
Unfortunately for the Christopoulos brothers and the Battalion, sandwiched between their goals were four goals for the Petes. After Alex tied it 1-1, the Troops gave up goals to Brady Hinz (11) at 9:44, Mason McTavish (28) at 10:28, and then a pair to Robertson at 13:15 and 15:13, the second one coming short handed.
In the third, Tucker Robertson (7) Thomas (19) and McTavish (29) all found the back of the net while Brandon Coe (17) got North Bay on the board once again at 14:52.
“Peterborough blocked a lot of shots on us,” says Wray. “I think that’s the difference, we weren’t willing to get into lanes and when pucks are getting through at the point and there are two guys at the net, you have to make sure you get sticks and sacrifice that body and block that shot.”
Those will be the areas they hope to correct heading into Friday's contest at the Leon’s Centre where they will play the Kingston Frontenacs.
