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Battalion finish on top in long shootout win over IceDogs

Brandon Coe nets shootout winner in round 8

The North Bay Battalion looked to make a statement as they took on the division-leading Niagara Ice Dogs Sunday afternoon.

The Troops (21-20-5-1) escaped with a 4-3 shootout victory against the Ice Dogs (26-14-4-2) in a game that could have gone either way.

One could forgive Niagara if they came out a little sluggish in this game, as they were completing the third game in as many days, with victories over the Sarnia Sting, and Sudbury Wolves, the latter of which came rather easy in a 6-2 outcome, however, the Ice Dogs came out flying early.

Halfway through the first period, Sam Miletic, formerly of the London Knights, had a shot take a weird bounce off Battalion netminder Christian Propp to put the Ice Dogs up 1-0 on the powerplay.

North Bay couldn’t get much going in the first, but came out strong in the second with a breakaway chance by Luke Burghardt that was stopped by Stephen Dhillon, who tended Niagara’s net.

5 minutes into the frame, Nick King kept the puck in for the Troops at the blue line and threw it on net for Andy Baker to bank in, his 10th of the season.

From there, these rivals would get more physical as Jake Henderson and Sam Miletic would take coincidental minor penalties for roughing, and North Bay would also have to serve a bench minor as head coach Stan Butler disagreed with the officiating.

On the ensuing powerplay, Kirill Maksimov would score to give Niagara the lead again at 2-1.

Early in the third, being down 5 on 3 and killing off the first penalty, Jesse Saban sent a clearing attempt up ice to the stick of Luke Burghardt, stepping out of the box, on a shorthanded breakaway to tie the game at 2.

30 seconds later, Brad Chenier put the Battalion up 3-2. The lead wouldn’t last the period however as Ben Jones tied the game up late to force it to overtime.

In overtime, North Bay couldn’t get anything going and Niagara dominated much of the extra frame.

The shootout, however, would go 8 rounds before Brandon Coe would score the winner to give the Troops the victory.  

After Coe put the Troops up, Matthew Philip came in to look to make it to round 9 but when he skated into the slot, he caught an end and awkwardly fell without taking the shot.  

“I just saw that everyone was going five-hole, so I thought I would change it up a bit and fake the shot, then go backhand. I’m just happy that we’re getting things going moving forward.” Coe would say after the game.

Head Coach Stan Butler was pleased with his team's efforts.

“I thought our guys battled back well, there was a lot of adversity in the game and we had to roll with the punches and find a way to win the hockey game.”

The Battalion are next in action Thursday when they play host to the Erie Otters.