It doesn’t happen very often but tonight all North Bay Battalion fans were cheering hard for the Sudbury Wolves.
The northern rival, which defeated the Battalion 5-2 in Sudbury on Friday night to put the Battalion at the brink of playoff elimination, came up big for the Troops by edging the Niagara IceDogs 4-3 tonight.
The Sudbury win allows the Battalion the opportunity to still catch the Niagara IceDogs for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as the Troops sit two points back.
McCauley Carson led the Wolves attack with two first period goals to give the visiting Wolves a 2-0 lead only 11:20 into the first period.
Daniel Singer got the IceDogs on the board at 17:56 of the first frame.
The IceDogs got the equalizer from Oliver Castleman at 7:26 of the second period.
But Kyle Capobianco restored the Wolves lead with a goal less than a minute later.
Owen Lane netted the eventual game winner at the three-minute mark of the third period.
Kirill Maksimov brought the IceDogs within one only a minute and a half later but that’s as close as the IceDogs would get.
The Battalion will need some help on Sunday afternoon.
The Troops will, of course, need to win their final home game Sunday afternoon against the Kingston Frontenacs and hope the Mississauga Steelheads can beat the IceDogs at the Hershey Centre in regulation time.
Both games begin at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon so there will definitely be some scoreboard watching at Memorial Gardens.
If the Battalion win and the IceDogs lose on Sunday, that would set up a one-game playoff tiebreaker for the eight seed that would take place early in the coming week.
