The North Bay Battalion scored three times in the opening six minutes of the third period as the Battalion pulled away for a 6-3 road win over the Niagara IceDogs Friday night at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines.
In the opening period, Patrick Brown scored on a turnover in the Niagara zone which gave the Troops an early 1-0 lead.
Johnny Corneil responded with a goal four minutes later which caused a significant delay as it initiated the Teddy Bear Toss in St. Catharines and squared things up 1-1.
It stayed that way until early in the second period as the Troops regained the lead when Kyle Potts found a rebound on the doorstep and beat Stephen Dhillon for his 6th of the season
The Battalion capitalized on another turnover, this time by Dhillon as his clearing pass was intercepted by Justin Brazeau who slipped by a defender and whipped it over Dhillon for his 24th of the season.
Kirill Maksimov cut into the Troops lead with a goal which beat some late in the second period which made it 3-2.
The Troops regained the two-goal lead on another Battalion power play as Cam Dineen ripped a shot from the side wall high over Dhillon for the third power play marker of the game.
The Battalion added another 43 seconds later as Nick King’s long-distance shot eluded Dhillon as the veteran goaltender got the pulled in favour of Colton Incze.
The onslaught continued as on a 3 on 1 Burghardt fed a perfect cross-crease pass to Curtis Evans for his first OHL goal and a 6-2 Battalion lead.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I am really happy about it,” said Evans about the effort post game on the OHL Tonight.
“I thought we played really well and the boys were flying and we capitalized on our chances.”
Ben Jones added a late goal for the IceDogs to make the final 6-3.
Luke Burghardt led the offence with three helpers in the Battalion 12th win of the season as the Troops improve to 12-17-4 on the season.
Julian Sime was solid in goal for the Battalion as he finished with 32 stops.
The Troops have one more game to go before the break as they travel to Erie to face the Otters Saturday night.
