Story by Kortney Kenney
The North Bay Battalion were looking to extend their season-best 5 game winning streak to 6 Thursday night and did just that by defeating the Sudbury Wolves 5-3.
The Battalion (19-19-5-1) started off slow in the first period as the Wolves (12-26-6) controlled the pace of play throughout the first period.
Goaltender Christian Propp stood tall for the Battalion early but eventually, Sudbury found the back of the net off the stick of rookie Blake Murray.
Super pest Drake Pilon would add a goal, along with newcomer Alexey Lipanov, who was recently acquired by the Wolves from the Barrie Colts at the trade deadline, to put Sudbury up 3-0.
Wolves goalie Jake McGrath would also prove he was up to task as well by stopping 20 shots in the first from the Troops.
That would be where the good times ended for Sudbury the rest of the night however.
Early in the second, Propp came up with a huge save to spring Luke Burghardt who put North Bay on the board making it a 3-1 game.
Later, on the powerplay, Braden Henderson would throw the puck on net as Justin Brazeau would tip the shot past McGrath to put the score within one, 3-2.
Late in the second, the Troops on the powerplay again, Andy Baker would bury the puck past McGrath to tie the game at 3.
The third period would be a more even affair as neither rival wanted to make the first mistake.
The first glaring mistake would come midway through the frame as Sudbury would fail to score on a great scoring chance, leading to a break the opposite way for North Bay. Adam Thilander would then fire a shot worthy of NHL consideration onto the Sudbury net to give North Bay the 4-3 lead. Adam McMaster, who now has goals in three straight, would ice the game with an empty-net goal to give the Troops a 5-3 victory.
The win was North Bay’s 6th in a row, and longest since they won 6 in 2013/14, the Troops first year in North Bay.
Daniel Walker, who played his first game since November 5th after being out with a back injury, said “we stuck to our game plan and turned the game around to give us the win. (Christian) Propp was amazing tonight, but we need to keep our game plan the same against Sudbury Sunday because you can’t expect your goalie to be amazing every night.”
Head coach Stan Butler liked what he saw from the team, but cautioned that the team needs to stop finding themselves in deficits. “You don’t come back from three down in this league very often and to do it is a big deal, and we’re battling for points right now as every point is important for us to get where we want to go.”
The Battalion are next in action Saturday as they head down highway 17 for a rematch with the Sudbury Wolves.
