The North Bay Battalion continue to roll with their 10th straight win in a 5-2 road victory over the Niagara IceDogs.
The Battalion rested a number of starters with the Central Division title secured as regulars Ty Nelson, Dom DiVincentiis, Liam Arnsby, Kyle McDonald and Avery Winslow all sat out for the last road game of the year in St. Catharines.
"We just wanted to stick to our game plan and keep our mojo, we got a good streak going here and keep playing our game," Owen Van Steensel told the OHL Tonight post-game.
It was the first OHL game for some recently signed Battalion forwards Dylan Richter and Lirim Amidovski.
After a scoreless first, Justin Ertel opened the scoring early in the second period on a shorthanded tally at 1:13 as Bloom sent Ertel a perfect feed on the shorthanded 2 on 1.
It was the Troops' 16th shorthanded tally of the season tying for the league lead.
Early in the third, the Battalion added to the lead as Owen Van Steensel cashed in on a nice give and go with Nikita Tarasevich to give the Troops a 2-0 lead.
The Battalion then got the power play going as Alexander Lukin one-timed a pass home to give North Bay a 3-0 lead less than 3 minutes after the Van Steensel goal.
However, just about a minute later, Kevin He spoiled Charlie Robertson's shutout bid at 5:52 of the final frame which made it 3-1.
The Troops responded again on an excellent individual effort by Lirim Amidovski as the newly signed forward blocked a shot that led to a breakaway and he rushed down and made a nifty deke around IceDogs netminder Owen Flores.
The IceDogs Zachary Lavoie netted his 28th on a nice move of his own on a breakaway which made it 4-2 at 18:53 of the third.
Josh Bloom iced it with an empty netter with 10 seconds left on the clock.
The Troops will likely have a number of regulars rested again on Sunday afternoon when they host the Mississauga Steelheads who could potentially be the Battalion's first round playoff matchup.
