Kyle Jackson’s first goal of the season at 15:41 of the third period proved the winner on Thanksgiving Day as the Battalion claimed a 7-5 victory over the visiting Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
The Battalion franchise has had good fortune on Thanksgiving Day. The victory pushed the club’s all-time record on the holiday to 14-5-3, including 5-2-0 in the North Bay era. The Troops are now on their first winning streak of the season, following an 8-2 win Saturday night on the road against the Niagara IceDogs.
Jackson’s marker was scored at even strength, an anomaly for the Troops on Monday as they went five for six with the man advantage, establishing a new team record for powerplay goals in a single game.
“It was an interesting game, that’s for sure” said Battalion head coach Stan Butler. “There were a lot of goals and a lot of excitement for the fans. We made a decision about a week ago, I said to Scott Wray that we should go with five forwards on the first powerplay unit and so far, that’s working our way”.
The new top unit of Matthew Struthers, Brad Chenier, Brandon Coe, Mitchell Russell and Mason Primeau was terrific, with three of their four goals coming in the first 15 seconds of the powerplay. The second unit claimed one of the five extra-man tallies, with standout rookie Paul Christopoulos hammering home a loose puck in the first for his second goal of the season.
The Battalion held leads of 2-1 after the first and 4-3 after the second, with the Greyhounds battling back each time. The visitors took their first and only lead of the contest at 7:43 of the third on a pretty backhand from Alex Johnston, which evidently did not last. Jaromir Pytlik, with two goals, and Jaden Peca, cousin of former Buffalo Sabres captain Michael Peca, were the standout players for the Greyhounds.
Struthers scored three goals in total, the last into an empty net, and added two assists for the first five point game of his career. He has 9 points in his last three games, coming alive offensively after a slow start to the season. The Battalion will need Struthers, their top-scoring returning player from last season, to continue producing similar numbers to have success this season.
A crowd of 2,189 at Memorial Gardens witnessed the win, with one lucky fan winning a year of free coffee courtesy of game sponsor Tim Hortons. It was the last Battalion home game for several weeks as the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling comes to North Bay from Oct. 22-27. The Troops now play five consecutive road games against Western Conference opponents over the next two weekends before returning home to host Sudbury on Nov. 1.
