Brent Moran made 34 saves and was named the game's first star, Steve Harland scored the overtime winner and Justin Brazeau continued to haunt the Wolves, scoring his fourth versus Sudbury this season.
The win temporarily leapfrogged the Troops into 7th place in the Eastern Conference, tied with the Niagara IceDogs in points (but ahead on winning percentage), pending the result of the Ottawa 67's game Friday night.
It was a typical North Bay-Sudbury rivalry game, featuring game misconducts, plenty of penalties, and some gritty play by both teams. And overtime. These two teams love to play overtime. It was the third time this season the two teams needed extra play to decide things, with the road team winning each time.
The Battalion was coming off a much-needed 4-1 victory over the Niagara IceDogs, a team they were chasing in the standings. The Thursday night win ended a five-game losing streak. The Troops face the bottom-feeding Colts in Barrie Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Daniil Verity struck first on the powerplay for the Battalion, pouncing on a rebound and beating Sudbury starter Jake McGrath. Adam McMaster and Zach Poirier (in his first game back from a two-game suspension) assisted on Verity's 12th, which came 3:10 into the opening period.
A big hit delivered behind the Sudbury net by Battalion forward Max Kislinger on Wolves defenceman Reagan O'Grady injured the Sudbury player. O'Grady's partner, Patrick Sanvido, rushed to his fallen teammate's defence, pummeling Kislinger with punches.
Kislinger received a game misconduct for checking-from-behind on the play.
Shots-on-goal favoured the Wolves 10-6. Sudbury dominated in the faceoff circle, holding a 12-4 advantage.
The Battalion was 9-10-0-0 when scoring the first goal of a game.
A deflected shot beat North Bay goaltender Brent Moran to the blocker side to tie the game 1-1 just 29 seconds after intermission. Drake Pilon was credited with the goal, his fourth, assisted by Kyle Capobianco and Aiden Jamieson.
A short time later, McGrath stopped another possible change in momentum with a huge save on Poirier to keep the game tied.
In the first in a series of undisciplined plays from both teams, Daniel Walker was assessed a slew-footing major penalty and a game misconduct, putting the Battalion down two men for the remainder of the game.
A penalty-filled stretch of play ensued, with multiple players from each team visiting the penalty box. Battalion forward Rhys Forhan alone spent 10 minutes serving the major penalties of teammates who were ejected.
During the Walker major, Sudbury took a high-sticking penalty to even the ice at 4-on-4, but North Bay's Jesse Saban almost immediately took a checking-to-the-head penalty to put the Battalion at a 5-on-3 disadvantage.
Already missing Cam Dineen, Riley Bruce, Brett Hargrave, and Jacob Ball, plus Zach Shankar who was suspended for Friday's game after accumulating multiple head-checking penalties, the Troops were on their heels with the in-game losses of Kislinger and Walker. The Battalion started the night short one forward to begin with, so the team was down to three lines for the duration of the game.
The game was tied 1-1 and the Wolves led in shots 28-17 and in faceoffs won 29-6 after two periods. The Troops were 6-9-0-0 when tied after two periods.
Justin Brazeau tipped a Brady Lyle shot past McGrath for a 2-1 Battalion lead. Lyle made a nice play at the blueline and patiently waited for an opening to shoot on net. Brazeau's 18th goal (and fourth against the Wolves this season) was also assisted by Steve Harland and came on the man advantage.
In his second straight strong outing, Moran snared an Alan Lyszczarczyk shot to preserve the Battalion lead. Head Coach Stan Butler had criticized the play of the overage netminder during the recent slide.
With 1:22 to play, Troops defenceman Jesse Saban was sent to the box for tripping Ryan Valentini. Seven seconds later, sniper Dmitry Sokolov tied the game with his 39th of the season. The powerplay marker was assisted by David Levin and Capobianco.
After three periods of play, the Wolves had outshot the Troops 36-25 and led the faceoff battle 40-15.
Harland took a feed from Brett McKenzie and made no mistake, beating McGrath. Harland's 24th came 90 seconds into overtime and gave the Battalion a 3-2 win.
The Troops face the Colts in Barrie at 7:30 Saturday night, the second of five consecutive road games.
