Brantford Win Ends Series
The young North Bay Battalion’s Ontario Hockey League season came to an end Saturday night with a 5-1 loss to the Brantford Bulldogs in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
Nick Lardis scored three goals to power Brantford, the East Division champions who finished first in the conference, while Calvin Crombie had one goal and one assist and Owen Protz the other goal as the Bulldogs captured the best-of-seven series four games to one.
Goaltender Ryerson Leenders made 23 saves before another sellout crowd of 3,207 at the Brantford Civic Centre.
Brantford advances to a conference semifinal against either the Oshawa Generals or Brampton Steelheads.
Lirim Amidovski scored for eighth-place North Bay, which got 29 saves from goaltender Mike McIvor. The Battalion posted its lone win Thursday night at home by a 6-3 score.
If the Troops had hopes of rebounding from a 4-1 second-intermission deficit, they took a hit when Crombie scored his third goal of the playoffs at 5:07 of the third period. He intercepted a pass in the Battalion zone and went in alone on McIvor, beating him with a backhander.
The Battalion failed to exert much pressure the rest of the way, as the Bulldogs held a 9-7 edge in shots in the frame.
Brantford led 1-0 through 20 minutes before Lardis doubled the lead at 4:30 of the middle period, using a between-the-legs shot that trickled behind McIvor, leaving even Lardis with a delayed reaction to the goal, what proved to be the winner. It was assisted by Cole Brown.
Amidovski replied at 7:18 off a turnover in the Brantford zone, ripping the puck home past a spinning Protz from the mid slot. The unassisted tally was Amidovski’s third.
The Bulldogs then struck for two goals 22 seconds apart, sparked by Protz at 11:06, when his lob from the left point sailed past McIvor’s glove. Crombie and Noah Nelson assisted on defenceman Protz’s first goal.
Lardis collected his seventh goal at 11:28, taking a slight back pass from Patrick Thomas and slapping the puck from the right side off a rush. Brown had the other assist.
A would-be Brantford goal by Lucas Moore at 12:06 went to video review and was negated because of an offside zone entry.
Lardis scored the only goal of the first period on the power play at 2:10, just 11 seconds after Jacob Therrien went off for crosschecking. Lardis drilled the puck from the right circle through traffic, assisted by Marek Vanacker and Thomas Budnick.
McIvor got his right pad a drive from the mid slot by the trailing Budnick in the ninth minute, and Brantford benefited from a non-call in a too-many-men situation in the 15th.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has won 21 of 43 playoff series, including 12 of 21 since relocation to North Bay in 2013 … The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 107-118 in 225 playoff games, including 48-65 in 113 road games. The Troops are 61-52 in 113 games since relocation, with a road record of 25-31 … The Battalion is 14-16 in the fifth game of playoff series, including 10-5 as North Bay … Therrien posed a danger in the second minute of the game when he cruised across the goalmouth with the puck but couldn’t control it for a proper shot … Amidovski and Bronson Ride led the Troops with three shots on goal apiece. Lardis, a 71-goal scorer in the regular season, paced the Bulldogs with eight … North Bay went 0-for-2 on the power play. Brantford was 1-for-5 … The Battalion bused south on Friday and overnighted at nearby Burlington … Opening lines had Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Andrew LeBlanc and right winger Therrien, Zach Wigle centring left winger Shamar Moses and right winger Parker Vaughan and Ihnat Pazii pivoting left winger Amidovski and right winger Nick Wellenreiter. Nolan Laird centred left winger Reyth Smith and right winger Ryder Carey … Defence pairings saw Ride with Jacob LeBlanc, Brayden Turley with Kent Greer and Jonathan Kapageridis with Adrian Manzo … The Battalion was without Aaron Enright, Briir Long, Zach Wilson and Stepan Chukharev … Brantford again was missing Adam Jiricek, Braeden O’Keefe, Daniel Chen and Ben Radley.
