It took the Hamilton Bulldogs all but 61 seconds to undo a momentous third period comeback by the Battalion. Despite trailing most of the game, the Troops scored three unanswered goal, including a pair from Justin Brazeau, to pull the Troops ahead with only three minutes remaining.
However, the celebrations and noise at Memorial Gardens were short lived. Hamilton’s Reilly Webb scored the equalizer at the 18:19 mark, followed by a bullet from Marian Studenic a minute later that would eventually be the game winner.
“The last two games have been really disappointing. The game in Barrie, I thought we played a really good game but we found a way to lose it and then again today it happened again. As I said to the kids before the game today we can’t change what happened yesterday but you can certainly do something about it today, but we just didn’t get it done,” shared head coach Stan Butler.
The Battalion was without two of the veteran forwards, Brett Mackenzie and Kyle Potts. Butler was candid stating their absence hurt them on the faceoff circle and their ability to shut down key players on the opposing team. This was the second third period meltdown in less than 24 hours after the Battalion let a 3-1 third period lead slip while in Barrie Saturday night.
“We just have to continue to work hard. We dropped some game we’d like to win but at the same time there’s a lot of hockey left and we have to persevere and find ways to win hockey games,” added Butler.
Daniel Walker also scored for the Battalion and Justin Brazeau tallied his first multi-goal game of the season. Sunday's loss now extends North Bay’s losing streak to six games.
The Battalion will look to find their winning ways when they host Sarnia this Thursday.
