Barclay Goodrow celebrates his 11th goal of the playoffs which proved to be the game winnner in game 3. Photo by Chris Dawson.
Key penalty kills and a pair of timely goals powered the Battalion to a 5-3 win and a 3-0 lead in the OHL Eastern Conference Final series Tuesday night at Memorial Gardens.
The Troops started strong, buzzing around the General’s net, only to be denied by highly-rated goaltender Daniel Altshuller.
Then disaster!
At the eight minute mark, right winger Matt MacLeod fired the puck over the glass resulting in a delay of game penalty. Then 20 seconds later, Ben Thomson was tagged for hooking giving the visitors a two man advantage for 1:40.
But Oshawa managed only a pair of shots on goal, a goalpost and a wide open net miss by Michael Dal Colle as the Battalion penalty-killing unit stymied the visitors.
The sell-out crowd roared its approval, and there was a sense that this was the Battalion’s night.
Then a mishandled puck by the Troops defence gave Dal Colle a breakaway, and he scored his sixth of the playoffs beating Jake Smith stick-side. It was the only time in the series the Generals had scored first and taken a lead.
But the Troops continued to battle, and then the roof fell in on the Generals.
With just over 90 seconds left in the period, Mike Amadio scored on the power play, followed 28 seconds later by Captain Barclay Goodrow’s 10th.
It didn’t take long for the Troops to continue their play in the second, as Brett McKenzie fed a pass to Brenden Miller on a two on one break to give the Battalion a 3-1 lead.
In fact the Troops were so dominant; the Generals didn’t manage a shot on goal until the 13 minute mark.
Oshawa got within one after Scott Laughton scored late in the period on a power play. That seemed to give them hope as they applied considerable pushback on the Troops.
But Goodrow scored his second of the game early in the third, firing a shot from a sharp angle that seemed to catch Altshuller by surprise.
Dal Colle replied with his second of the game on the power play a minute later to make the score 4-3 but couldn’t get the equalizer.
Vincent Praplan scored into the empty net to seal the deal.
Generals coach D.J Smith was blunt after the game.
“We made some mistakes that ended up in the back of our net.”
Game four takes place Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Gardens. A win will propel the Troops into the league championships against the Western Division champs…either Guelph or Erie. Guelph leads that series 3-1 after a 5-2 Erie win Tuesday night.
