By Kortney Kenny.
A chippy affair is what awaited fans of the North Bay Battalion as they witnessed a 5-4 victory over the Kitchener Rangers Thursday evening.
Kitchener (15-7-2-0) came into this game against North Bay (7-13-3-0) as one of the top teams in the OHL, and ranked 7th in the entire Canadian Hockey league which encompasses the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League.
The Troops meanwhile were coming off a 6-5 victory over Sudbury on Sunday which snapped a six-game losing streak and was looking to keep the good times rolling.
When the action got underway, North Bay would press the attack quickly with good scoring chances coming fast in the first two minutes from the sticks of Kyle Potts and Brett McKenzie.
On an early Battalion powerplay, Rangers forwards Nick McHugh and Greg Meireles would find themselves on a two on one, but North Bay goaltender Julian Sime would prove to be up to the task, making two great stops which would spring Adam McMaster to go end to end and weave around the Rangers defence to give North Bay the early 1-0 lead with just his 2nd of the season.
Shortly thereafter, the Troops would find themselves again with the man advantage as Cam Dineen would capitalize to push North Bay’s lead to 2-0 heading into the second period.
The second would see the coaching staffs of both teams let the reins go as firewagon hockey would dominate the first eight minutes of play, however, there were only three shots on goal between the two teams.
Kitchener would score two goals quickly off the sticks of Logan Stanley and Riley Damiani to tie the score up at two, but North Bay would retaliate as Justin Brazeau would score to give the lead back to the Troops, 3-2.
From there the teams would start to play more aggressively which would lead to a fight between North Bay’s Jesse Saban and Kitchener's captain, Connor Bunnaman. Bunnaman would pick up a roughing penalty on the play for causing Saban to fight, and on the ensuing powerplay, Nick King of the Battalion would score his 2nd to give North Bay a two-goal lead again.
Before the second intermission, Kitchener would pull the score back to 4-3 off the strength of a Jonathan Yantis goal.
Early in the third period, both teams had a feeling out period before Damiani would score his second of the game to tie the game at four, but from there on Julian Sime and the Battalion defence corps would lock down the fort.
With just under a minute of regulation left to go, in a game which seemed destined for overtime, Justin Brazeau would tap in his second of the game, giving North Bay the 5-4 lead and victory.
“It felt amazing and feels great to be able to score and defeat a team like Kitchener and get two wins in a row” first star of the game Justin Brazeau would say after the game.
Head coach Stan Butler was pleased with his team’s effort after the game.
“We have had a lot of tight games this year and most of them haven’t gone our way, and to play a team with talent like the Kitchener Rangers and to come back and win the game is a huge and I’m really happy for the kids.”
Next game for the Battalion, is this Sunday as they entertain Central Division rivals the Barrie Colts. Puck drop is 2 p.m.
