The Mississauga Steelheads defeated the North Bay Battalion 2-1 Thursday and have moved into first place in the Central Division (and the Eastern Conference's second seed), one point ahead of the Sudbury Wolves, and five clear of the Troops. The idle Wolves have played one more game than the Battalion and Steelheads. The Battalion face the Wolves Friday night in Sudbury.
"They scored when they needed to score and we didn't," said Head Coach Stan Butler, "we had our chances and we didn't get it done."
Butler had thrown his lines and defensive pairings in the blender with some interesting combinations the result.
Among the notable changes is the formation of a new top line, with leading scorer Brett McKenzie between Zach Poirier and rookie Adam McMaster. McMaster, the team's first-round pick in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection was recognized for his scholastic efforts prior to the game.
Deadline addition Jesse Saban took some shifts alongside captain Riley Bruce to start the game. Mark Shoemaker played opposite Zach Shankar. Defencemen Adam Thilander and Brady Lyle teamed up for the third Battalion partnership.
These pairings did not last through one period of play, though, as the Battalion played with five defencemen as Saban headed to the dressing room for maintenance.
Steve Harland's goal-scoring prowess has been shifted away from McKenzie's wing to form what the Troops hope will be a viable second scoring line. Harland is now playing with centre Brett Hargrave and winger Brad Chenier.
Kyle Potts is now the pivot between Justin Brazeau and Daniil Verity, while an energy line has been assembled featuring Jacob Ball, Daniel Walker and Max Kislinger.
Butler indicated that the new combinations would get more than a one game trial run, observing that "we've got to look at it for awhile. I don't think it's something we can make decisions on based on one game. We've got to give it probably three games to see whether guys have chemistry or not."
Battalion thorn-in-the-side Owen Tippett was not in the Steelheads lineup Thursday, however, Michael McLeod was, fresh off earning a silver medal with the Canadian U20 team.
Word out of Battalion camp was that the team has practiced better than at any time this season after the deadline moves, and after stopping the team's nine-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory Sunday in Ottawa.
Julian Sime got the start between the pipes for the Troops versus Mississauga, and he made a cat-like glove save on an Aidan McFarland point-blank shot five minutes in to keep the game scoreless.
Following the game, regarding Sime, Butler said, "Anytime your goalie gives up two goals and gives you a chance to win you've got to be happy with that."
The renewed practice energy carried over to the first period, as the Battalion battled hard with their division rivals throughout. Halfway through the first, the Troops trailed in shots-on-goal 9-5 but had had some decent chances.
At 11:31, a slick pass across the crease by the Steelheads' Ryan McLeod eluded the Battalion defencemen, and Scoley Dow made no mistake, tapping home his fifth past Sime to give the visitors the lead. Marcus Dickerson drew the second assist on the play.
Verity missed a gorgeous opportunity to tie the game with just over six minutes to play, as he had the goalie out of position, but the puck skipped over his stick and out of harm's way.
A Battalion powerplay opportunity after a Dickerson penalty with exactly two minutes remaining was negated by a Chenier slashing penalty, and the two teams played the remainder of the period at 4-on-4.
Shots favoured the Steelheads 10-8 after one period of play.
The Troops opened the second period on a high note. At 3:48, Bruce scored his first of the season on a long-range shot, beating Steelheads goalie Jacob Ingham, and assisted by McMaster and birthday boy Saban, who turned 20 the same day he debuted with the Troops. Saban took a regular shift in the second after missing part of the opening period.
On the team's new defenceman, Butler said that "he played fine. He's a big, steady defenceman, that's the way he plays. I thought he played a pretty good game, and to get the pass over to Riley for the goal was nice to see."
Three-quarters of the way through the second, the Battalion had a two-man advantage, but the Steelheads penalty kill, especially the three-zone game of McLeod, snuffed out any chances for the Troops to go ahead.
Shots after two periods of play were tied 20-20. The Battalion was 5-6-0-0 when tied heading into the third period.
At 3:42 of the third, McKenzie was whistled for cross checking, and with 27 seconds remaining in the original minor, Poirier was sent off for kneeing. Sime made several solid saves as McKenzie exited the box, bringing the advantage to 5-on-4 for the Steelheads, which the Troops killed off as well.
The familiarity between the two teams, who met less than two weeks ago at the Gardens (a 3-1 Mississauga win) and their battle for Central Division supremacy led to a considerably more physical third period. There were many scrums after the whistle, as well as big hits, and Bruce and the Steelheads' Nicolas Hague were sent off for matching roughing penalties after a wrestling match after the play.
With just over seven minutes to play, the Steelheads moved ahead 2-1. Jacob Cacagnette converted what would be the winning goal off of a Watson rebound. The second assist went to Nathan Bastian.
Said Butler regarding the game, "In the first period, Verity misses an open net, on the winning goal we have two or three chances to make plays on it, we don't make it. It's mistakes like that that are costing us right now. The way we play, the margin of error is not very big."
Butler pulled Sime to try to even the game, but the Battalion could not find the tying goal, and the Steelheads prevailed.
"I thought we played hard at times. We're past the stage of getting marks for effort, we've got to get results, and obviously we didn't get the job done," said Butler.
Final shots-on-goal showed a 32-28 Steelheads advantage.
The Battalion head west on Highway 17 to face the Wolves in Sudbury Friday night at 7 p.m., and return home to face the Barrie Colts at Memorial Gardens Sunday at 2 p.m.
