North Bay Battalion fans are witnessing something special.
Mike Amadio, the best single-season goalscorer in Battalion franchise history, continued to add to what’s sure to be a long-lived legacy by scoring his 50th against the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night.
And he did it shorthanded, no less.
But the remarkable feat was one-upped by linemate Mathew Santos’ sudden death stunner as the Troops won the second instalment of a home-and-home series with the Wolves 4-3 at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Santos’ breakaway winner capped off a frantic, penalty-filled final forty minutes that saw the Battalion surrender three straight Sudbury goals.
The Troops powered their way to a three-goal first period but fell flat thanks to some inconsistent penalties in the late stages, which the Wolves pounced on to claw their way back and force overtime.
“We knew that they were going to come out hard tonight and we didn’t want to take them lightly,” Amadio said post-game. “I think we came out to a good start but we let up a bit and let them back in the game, but it was huge to get that second point there.”
Jake Smith was stellar and did a lot of the heavy lifting for the guys in green, stopping 40 Sudbury shots and shutting the door on six of the Wolves’ seven power play opportunities.
The character win is another encouraging effort for the North Bay boys, who now ride a two-game winning streak going into their final game of the regular season on Sunday.
Neither team took total control early, but the tension was evident in their final matchup of the season.
North Bay eventually took the one-goal lead on a rare four-on-three power play, where Brett McKenzie was left all alone and jammed in a doorstep scramble for the one-goal lead.
Then it was Amadio’s time to shine.
On their second penalty kill early in game, Santos tipped him the puck over the blue line and Amadio flew in all alone to bury a forehand-backhand beauty inside the far-side post for his 50th, throwing his head and arms up to the heavens to celebrate the remarkable feat with relief.
“It’s pretty surreal - It’s obviously an unbelievable feeling,” said the humble captain. “I don’t really know how to explain it - it's just a great feeling.
“It was a great pass by Santos there, I got there breakaway and, fortunately for me, it went in,” he explained. “[Santos] has been able to do that all year, which I think is a big part of my success - I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him.”
Max Kislinger then redeemed himself for some undisciplined play earlier in the period by wheeling into the Wolves zone and firing a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot top cheese.
But just as it looked like the Troops had the game in their hands, the Wolves went on to win the final two periods in almost every category, outshooting the Battalion 21-6 in the middle frame and eventually shattering Smith’s hopes of becoming the all-time franchise leader in shutouts.
Smith, who’s just one clean-sheet performance away from setting the all-time mark, saw his hopes dashed by Alan Lyszczarczyk. The standout rookie redirected a point shot top corner past Smith after being left all alone in the Battalion slot on the power play to bite back into the deficit.
That brought the building back to life and the Wolves fed off that energy by shutting the Battalion out through the rest of regulation.
The pack continued to pour on the pressure and some inconsistent calls both ways slowed the pace of play just enough for Sudbury to pounce.
A dominant third-period shift by the Wolves caught the Troops standing still in their own zone and Mikkel Aagaard made them pay. In his first OHL game, Conor Ali was the one who pin-pointed Aagaard in the slot and slipped him a clean pass to pull within one.
The Battalion looked to have an answer with a Kyle Wood point shot goal in the dying stages, but it was called back on a goaltender interference call.
With the one-goal lead to defend until the end then, they looked to dodge a bullet late after Zach Shankar’s four-minute high-sticking penalty was called back.
But on the ensuing shift, Dmitry Sokolov came ripping down the right wing and beat Shankar wide to go in uncontested against Smith and fire a game-tying backhand beauty upstairs with less than three minutes on the clock.
“Obviously going into the playoffs we want to be able to keep our leads because we know that these are going to be close games come playoffs,” said Amadio. “We’ve got to be able to keep our leads in the third and keep the two points.”
But sacrificing one point was all North Bay would allow.
Just over a minute into the three-on-three format, Kyle Wood sent a huge stretch pass to Brett McKenzie from his own zone, who spun and connected with a streaking Santos for the game-winning breakaway.
The Battalion are now 6-6-0-4 in overtime games this season. More importantly though, they increase their lead over the Niagara IceDogs for third place in the conference, with a game in-hand.
They will round out the regular season on Sunday at home against the Barrie Colts. Game time is 2 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
