Ryan Suzuki scored for the Barrie Colts at 4:01 of the second period on the power play, and that was it. For almost the entire 60 minutes of hockey between the North Bay Battalion (10-9-0-1) and the Barrie Colts (11-9-1-0) the game was a long, slow, and drawn out snooze fest that barely gave the crowd at the Molson Centre anything to get excited about.
In fact the loudest cheer may have been for the girl who dumped her popcorn on her boyfriend when he refused to kiss her on the kiss came during the TV time out.
“I thought it was a really boring, flat game,” said Acting Head Coach Adam Dennis after the game.
“I did not think we came ready to play.”
That was evident by the Troops being heavily out shot to begin both the first and second periods. At one point the Colts were up 6-0 near the halfway point of the first, and then had expanded that to a 17-9 advantage in the second period alone. North Bay managed just five more shots on net in the third period for a lopsided total of 35-19.
Dennis says one silver lining was the work in net by starting goaltender Christian Propp (7-7-0-0) who was challenged at times throughout the game, but gave North Bay every opportunity to stay in the game, “he gave us a chance, even up to the last minute to go and get a point tonight,” says Dennis.
“We did not deserve it but he was really good for us tonight.”
The goaltending tandem of Propp and Christian Purboo has been really good altogether over the last month of the season. Since the 4-3 win over Ottawa at home on October 3rd, each goaltender has gotten into at least one game every weekend. Propp has gone 6-4 over that span (including the loss to Barrie) While Purboo is 4-1-1. Also over that span, they have given up more than four goals in regulation play just once, a 6-2 loss to Saginaw on October 13th, while allowing three goals or less 11 times over the 15 games.
This was also just the second shutout of the season for the Battalion, the other goose egg came against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds during the first weekend of the season, a 6-0 loss in the Soo.
But North Bay’s offence, for all the accolades it had received over the last month, was non-existent in Thursday’s defeat, “it just seemed like we had a hard time finding any kind of life,” says Dennis.
“Our group the last couple of weeks has found a way to get out of it with some kind of spark, but we just couldn’t get it going.”
In a division contest between two teams who are neck in neck in the early going of the post season race, you’d expect there to be a little more fight from both sides, but like the offensive output from the Troops, that too was non-existent.
Dennis says that stuck out to the coaching staff during the game, “we knew coming into this weekend we were going to have to play playoff type hockey and we just didn’t have that tonight.”
“I feel like we gave away a game.”
The division rival contests continue with the Battalion welcoming in the Sudbury Wolves on Friday night at Memorial Gardens. A team that defeated North Bay 4-3 in regulation just two weekends ago, with the winning goal coming in the last minute of regulation play.
The Troops added some experience to their lineup ahead of Thursday game against the Barrie Colts. They announced a trade for 17 year-old Mason Primeau from the Guelph Storm, in exchange for a couple of second round picks. Primeau centred the second line with Adam McMaster on his left side and Brandon Coe on his right wing. Coe and Primeau were teammates in Midget.
Brad Chenier moved up to the top left wing position with Matthew Struthers in the middle and Justin Brazeau on the right side.
But the injection of some new blood into the lineup just didn’t pan out on this night. However, they will be able to get right back on the ice in 24 hours and look to wipe this loss from their collective memories, according to Dennis “that’s the beauty of this game,” he says.
“We’ve got a chance to redeem ourselves tomorrow and we hope there’s a much better effort.”
Troops host the Sudbury Wolves Friday night with former North Bay Centennial Chris Neil as the special guest.
