The North Bay Battalion came into their Friday night tilt at Memorial Gardens looking to rebound in a big way against the Niagara IceDogs. ,
However, it was not to be as the Troops fell 6-4 tonight; Twenty-four hours after falling to the Owen Sound Attack 8-4,
“We really pushed at the end,” assitant coach Adam Dennis said when asked his thoughts on the valiant comeback effort the Troops displayed in the third period.
“It’s a real good team over there though. They’ve got seven guys over there that are a point a game or over fifty points. To take them to the last minutes was a good effort but we need more, we need points right now and we need to find ways to get those."
The first period saw Niagara push the play for the majority of the period. It took until 16:38 for the Battalion to register an official shot in goal before Akil Thomas gave the Ice Dogs the 1-0 lead with 17 seconds left on the clock.
The second period saw the teams trade goals with Matthew Struthers marker breaking IceDogs goaltender Stephen Dhillon’s shut out streak at a remarkable 147 minutes.
But the highlight came from an unassisted shorthanded Brad Chenier goal.
“Brad brings our heartbeat most nights,” Dennis said of Chenier’s efforts.
“He’s such an emotional player, he will do anything for the team. He will block shots, put his body on the line and he is a real important piece.”
The third would see the Troops come out with a resurgence in play that would see them tie up the game with two goals in under a minute,
One by hard working Luke Moncada, and the other a baseball style bat-in by Justin Brazeau that made him look more like an in his prime Jose Bautista.
“Everything seems to be going in right now,” the captain said about his 53rd of the season.
“It was nice to get that one tonight but I wish it was a better outcome.”
The silver lining in this game for the Battalion is that Barrie fell 6-3 to Mississauga. Barrie sits three points behind North Bay for the final playoff spot, and sets up an interesting matchup next Thursday (the seventh) between the two clubs at Memorial Gardens.
The Battalion do have a home date with highway 17 rivals the Sudbury Wolves Sunday however that they cannot look past.
“We need another effort like we had tonight,” Brazeau said of the impending game Sunday.
“We need to find a way to get points this game, but next Thursday is probably the biggest game of the year.”
“What we want to do is try and get points,” Dennis echoed.
“That is what is important at this point. We control our destiny. If we win hockey games, we have nothing to worry about.”
The aforementioned game against the Wolves takes place Sunday at 2 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.
