The Battalion have a hole to climb out of. Two games into the Eastern Conference Finals and North Bay find themselves down 2-0 to the Generals after a 3-0 loss in Oshawa on Sunday evening.
In similar fashion to game one, the officials had trouble figuring out where the line was in calling penalties and North Bay suffered from those inconsistencies by having to kill off four power plays in the middle frame.
While they hung tough through the first three penalty kills, the Generals capitalized on the fourth chance when Calum Ritchie got the puck at the North Bay blue line and fired a shot that got by North Bay Goaltender Mike McIvor. It’s the fifth post-season goal for the former first round (#2 in 2021) draft pick of the Oshawa Generals who was also selected in the first round (#27 overall) in last year's NHL entry draft by the Colorado Avalanche, and it gave the Generals a 2-0 lead at 17:25.
Through Sunday’s game, the Generals have been awarded 52 power plays in their 12 post-season contests. Contrast that to North Bay who have had the man advantage 35 times in 11 games, and have been out chanced 10-4 in this series, going 0/1 on the power play in game two and 3/4 on the penalty kill.
“I’d love to know what they are doing. I’d love to be on the power play more. That’s a talent to be on the power play that much,” said Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen, referring to Oshawa’s ability to draw the call.
Oulahen said it’s hard to overcome having to play shorthanded for a significant stretch of the game.
“You have to rely on so many guys and top players on the penalty kill so then we just didn’t have the energy to push in the third period.”
With a minute remaining in the second period, the Battalion received their first power play of the game, which carried over to the third, but the Troops couldn’t take advantage with Jacob Oster turning aside all the shots that came his way while the Generals were down by a man.
For the rest of the period North Bay spent a little too much time in their own zone and only managed to get three shots on Oster, and a couple of posts and crossbars, but nothing went over the goal line and the Troops were shut out for the first time this post-season.
“I’m not really going to put much thought or stock into the third period,” says Oulahen. “You look at what we had to deal with in the second and that’s what happens. You can’t go to the box four times in a period and think that you are going to have the legs to make a push. I think we have to bottle up what we did in that first period, that’s the type of game we are going to have to play, that was for sure our best period of the entire series, and we’ll see if we can do that for three periods tomorrow (Monday) night.”
Owen Van Steensel had the first really good opportunity of the game in that first period. With Dalyn Wakely leading a rush into the zone down the right side, it turned into a two-on-one attack and Wakely fed the puck perfectly over to Van Steensel who had a gaping cage to shoot at, but defenceman Ben Danford dove across the slot in time to take away the shot, and what was likely a goal, around the 12:00 minute mark of the opening frame.
It proved to be a big defensive play as the Generals would strike first. Minnesota Wild 2nd round draft pick (#53 in 2023) Rasmus Kumpulainen brought the puck towards the Battalion blue line and spun and fired the puck towards the net and the seeing eye shot made its way through traffic to put Oshawa ahead 1-0 at 17:52.
Battalion Captain Liam Arnsby, spoke to the OHL tonight broadcast after the first period and was asked about the goal.
“It was a small mistake, and those things happen, and we just have to work at minimizing those things going forward.”
Arnsby, who was born just 15-minutes away in Ajax, Ontario was playing in front of his hometown crowd and was back in the lineup after serving a six-game suspension which took place in round one against Kingston.
“It’s tough having to miss a few games, but the coaches have done a great job helping me get back, getting me skating," said Arnsby.
"It’s going to be a challenge but we’re looking forward to that challenge. I’m proud of the guy's effort, beating Sudbury in the second round was huge, and I’m just happy to be back with them on the ice.”
Van Steensel had another chance shortly after the Generals goal, but on a partial breakaway his stick snapped, evading his opportunity to tie the game near the end of the first period and the Generals carried that lead into the locker room after 20 minutes.
It’s just the fourth time in twelve playoff games the Generals had a first period lead, and the Battalion had only faced a first period deficit twice this post-season before Sunday.
Beckett Sennecke (7) scored an empty net goal at 19:49 in the third period to round out the scoring to put Oshawa up 2-0 in the series.
“The guys that have been here for the last couple of years know what it takes to win,” said Battalion overage forward Justin Ertel in the post-game press conference. “We know that the most disciplined team is usually the team that wins it, and we can’t be putting ourselves in the box. We have to be disciplined and we’re looking forward to playing in front of our home fans as well tomorrow night.”
The Battalion has been exceptional in front of the home crowd in the 2024 post-season, going 5-0 at Memorial Gardens over the first two playoff series.
“It’s a pretty neat environment at this time of year,” said Oulahen. “At home, things are a little more familiar, you get to have your routine. I think in a back-to-back scenario, you love to have that second game in your rink. We’ll have to try and take advantage of it.”
And they’ll have to game plan for a Generals team that has been just as exceptional on the road, going 5-0 themselves away from the Tribute Communities Centre this post-season.
“In junior hockey, and especially with our schedule and where we are, this is typical to have these quick turnarounds,” says Oulahen. “We’ve done it so many times where we are playing a Saturday night game in Barrie and then we have a 2:00 p.m. game in North Bay on Sunday afternoon. Our game time is 7 p.m. tomorrow and so I have no worries about that.”
What the Battalion will be more focused on is trying to solve Oster who secured his second career playoff shutout on Sunday and, after allowing two goals on the first two shots he saw in this series, has now made 44 consecutive saves over the last six periods of action.
“We need to get back to our basics,” says Ertel who finished with four shots on net, including a couple of grade A scoring chances early in the game. “I think we’ve gotten away from that the last couple of games. If everyone is getting pucks in deep and grinding out there it will really help us.”
The Generals outshot the Troops 38-22 overall with McIvor turning aside 35 shots in the defeat, adding yet another impressive game to his unexpectedly impressive playoff run.
“You come into some situations where you need to have a guy step up for you, and he’s done that for us all year. In fact, some of his best games have been against some of the top teams in the league. He’s a guy that relishes the moment, relishes the pressure and just keeps getting better and better and has been fantastic since the day I had to put him in there,” said Oulahen.
