Battalion Defeat Attack

Shamar Moses scored the eventual winning goal and added an assist as the North Bay Battalion defeated the Owen Sound Attack 4-2 Monday in the Troops’ traditional Thanksgiving Day game.

Jacob Therrien and Ethan Procyszyn also had one goal and one assist apiece, while rookie Ryder Carey also scored. Goaltender Mike McIvor provided 25 saves for North Bay, which dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen before a Memorial Gardens crowd of 3,199.

The Battalion, which has a won-lost-extended record of 5-3-0 for 10 points, tied with the Niagara IceDogs atop the Ontario Hockey League’s Central Division, played its first home game since its season opener, a 4-0 victory Sept. 27 over the Peterborough Petes.

Ben Cormier and Declan Waddick scored for Owen Sound, and goaltender Carter George made 21 saves. Coach Scott Wray’s Attack, which defeated the visiting Petes 7-2 Saturday night, is 3-4-1 for seven points, tied with the Erie Otters for third place in the Midwest Division.

Owen Sound traded Colby Barlow, who scored 116 goals in 172 games in his first three seasons, to the Oshawa Generals on Oct. 3 for Tristan Delisle, David Bedkowski and six OHL Priority Selection picks. Bedkowski is sidelined with an injury.

“The last 45 minutes of the game were pretty solid, kind of the way we want to play,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen.

“I thought we were patient defensively, not giving up too much, and then waited for those opportunities to have those spurts and have those moments, and a really good start to the third period obviously, with some big-time goals by some big-time players and a really good win here.”

The teams were tied 1-1 when Procyszyn backhanded home a rebound on the power play 23 seconds into the final period. Jacob LeBlanc and Therrien assisted on Procyszyn’s team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Moses, playing his first game at North Bay since a trade from the Barrie Colts, gathered a rebound at the lip of the crease and went to his forehand to deposit the puck behind George at 3:26. Wyatt Kennedy and Aaron Enright assisted on Moses’s second goal, both with the Troops.

Waddick, trying to slip the puck across the goalmouth on a power-play rush, had the disc deflected into the net by McIvor at 4:51 to pull Owen Sound within 3-2, but Carey hauled down a zone-clearing lob pass at centre ice and raced in alone on George to score an insurance goal, his second, at 17:37.

McIvor stoned Waddick with a left-pad stop in the 12th minute and denied Konnor Smith in tight at 19:35.

Cormier opened the scoring at 2:00 of the first period after a pass by the Battalion’s Kent Greer deflected off referee Aaron Neely’s skate behind the net, where it was grabbed by Rafik Varosyan. He fed the disc in front to Cormier for a quick conversion and his second goal.

Therrien tied it on the power play at 15:45, taking a cross-ice pass from LeBlanc and one-timing the puck past George from deep in the left circle. Moses had the other assist.

The scoreless second period saw North Bay outshoot the visitors 12-10, with James Petrovski forced to take a holding penalty to foil Greer streaking into the offensive zone at 8:06. The Troops killed back-to-back minors to Brayden Turley for holding at 15:07 and Andrew LeBlanc for delay of game at 17:05.

The Battalion plays host to the Sarnia Sting at 7 p.m. Thursday, featuring Paint the Rink Pink presented by The Clubhouse.

BATTALION BULLETS: FancyDancey Botox sponsored the holiday game … The Battalion has an all-time won-lost-tied record of 17-8-0 on Thanksgiving Day, including a won-lost-extended mark of 8-2-0 at North Bay … The Toronto St. Michael’s Majors and their incarnations in Mississauga as the St. Michael’s Majors and Steelheads have been the opposition 13 times. Niagara and the Sudbury Wolves account for three games each, while Peterborough and Owen Sound have played in two apiece. Barrie and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds have one appearance each … Enright, who has one goal, earned his first OHL assist … Opening lines had Procyszyn centring left winger Owen Van Steensel and right winger Moses, Andrew LeBlanc pivoting Lirim Amidovski on left wing and right winger Therrien and Nolan Laird centring left winger Natan Teshome and right winger Carey. Centre Dylan Richter and right winger Stepan Chukharev had various linemates … Defence pairs saw Bronson Ride with Kennedy, Turley with Jacob LeBlanc and Zach Wilson with Greer. Enright was the seventh defenceman … The Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Ihnat Pazii, Anthony Romani, Tyson Rismond and Reyth Smith … Pazii has a hairline fracture of the clavicle suffered in a 3-2 win via shootout Friday night over Erie … George, along with Petrovski, was credited with an assist on Waddick’s goal … The Battalion went 2-for-6 on the power play. Owen Sound was 1-for-7. Photo/article credit- North Bay Battalion

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