One night after taking down the top team in the Eastern Conference, the North Bay Battalion could not replicate their success on the road. Going up against their playoff foes from last years Eastern Conference Finals, the Troops lost 4-1 to the Hamilton Bulldogs on Friday night.
Holding the Ottawa 67’s scoreless on Thursday for a 5-0 win, the Battalion (15-7-0-0) were hoping to take that momentum into First Ontario Centre where they had previously beaten Hamilton 5-1 back on November 4th.
But the Troops couldn’t replicate the same scoring success that saw
12 different skaters get on the scoresheet against Ottawa, getting just one goal in the second period, making the score 2-1 Hamilton at the time.
Dallas Stars prospect Justin Ertel (8) picked up a huge rebound off a Tye Nelson point shot that went off the pads of Hamilton goalie Tristan Malboeuf and towards the near side boards, right off that bounce Ertl threw the puck back at the net at Malboeuf didn’t recover in time to make the save. The goal gives Ertl a third point in as many games and the former third round Battalion draft pick is continuing to heat up in the month of November. In 11 games this month, Ertel has been held off the scoresheet just three times and has accumulated five goals and 14 points, with four multi-point games.
That was as close at the Battalion would get on the scoreboard, getting outshot 41-28 on the evening. Neither team scored a power play goal with North Bay going 0/2 and Hamilton 0/3.
The opening goal came at 19:29 with Logan Morrison setting up Gavin White (3). Morrison would add another assist at 11:12 of the second period on the Avery Hayes goal, the 15th goal of the season for him making it 2-0 Hamilton.
Morrison, en route to first star honours added a goal (8) at 18:21 in the third on an empty net. Hayes (16) scored again just over a minute later as well on an empty net with the assist credited to North Bay native Masen Wray, the son of Battalion Assistant Coach Scott Wray. It’s the younger Wrays second career point. The 3rd round draft choice by Hamilton in 2022 has appeared in 12 games so far in his rookie campaign.
The loss to Hamilton will sting for the moment for the Troops, but they can take solace in the fact they got very good performances in back-to-back games from their rookie netminders.
Rookie fourth round draft pick Mike McIvor made his OHL debut in net for the North Bay Battalion, making 37 saves on 39 shots against Hamilton. The 6’01” Goaltender made a number of big saves down the stretch to keep the Battalion to within a goal, up until the Bulldogs cashed in on a pair of empty net goals late in the third. He was named the game's third star in the setback.
McIvor follows in the footsteps of Charlie Robertson who made an 18-save shutout against Ottawa the night before. All that is good news for a team who lost their number one goaltender in Dom DiVincintiis to concussion protocols after he was bumped during practice earlier this week.
The Battalion will look to end the weekend on a winning note when they take on the Niagara IceDogs in St. Catherines on Saturday. The Troops head in to that game with a five-point lead over Mississauga in the Central Division, and a 17-point gap on the 5-12-3-0 IceDogs who sit at the bottom of that division, but are coming off a 7-3 victory over the Barrie Colts on Friday.
The Battalion will remain on the road until December 8th as they head to Sudbury on Wednesday, Kingston next Friday and Peterborough on Saturday December 3rd.