Hounds prevail over Troops
Brady Martin scored an empty-net goal and provided three assists as the Soo Greyhounds defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-1 Thursday night in an Ontario Hockey League game.
Travis Hayes, Christopher Brown and Chase Reid also scored for the Greyhounds, while goaltender Noah Tegelaar made 26 saves. Soo, which opened a three-game road trip with an 8-2 thrashing of the Sudbury Wolves on Wednesday night, improved its won-lost-extended record to 10-6-1 for 21 points, second in the West Division.
Kent Greer scored for North Bay, and goaltender Mike McIvor stopped 32 of 35 shots before 2,066 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
The Battalion, which dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen, lost a third straight game and is 7-8-0 for 14 points, third in the Central Division, a point behind the Barrie Colts, who edged the visiting Sarnia Sting 3-2 in overtime.
“I thought we deserved better tonight, to be honest,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen, choosing his words carefully.
“Different circumstances have us coming out with a bad result. I feel for the kids, ’cause, first period, feeling each other out probably, both teams. Second period, I loved it. I loved how we played. We were on our toes. We were generating a lot, hard to play against.
“You go into the third up by one, and you can’t predict how that period was going to go. It was just crazy, and we’re on the wrong side of it.”
Soo tied it when Hayes darted down the right wing and beat McIvor from the circle at 2:52 of the final frame. Martin had the lone assist on Hayes’s sixth goal of the season.
The winning goal, by Brown at 5:38, followed a flurry of penalty calls that put the Troops two men short for 3:21. Lirim Amidovski drew a double minor for high-sticking and Shamar Moses a slashing penalty at 4:17, and Bronson Ride was handed a slashing minor at 5:07. McIvor shone in keeping the Greyhounds to one goal in the span.
Reid pinched deep on the right side and cashed a rebound at 16:28 for a 3-1 lead, with assists on the defenceman’s third goal going to Spencer Evans and Martin. With McIvor gone for a sixth attacker, Martin, playing his third game since being returned last week by the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators, put the puck into the empty net unassisted at 19:00.
Defenceman Greer scored on the power play at 2:47 of the middle period, taking a pass from Moses, stepping in from the left point and wiring his third goal from the top of the circle. The Battalion was skating four against three after Ride went off for crosschecking, Soo’s Noah Laus for holding and the visitors’ Jordan Charron for checking from behind in short order.
The Greyhounds forged an 11-8 edge in shots in the first period, partly because they enjoyed two power plays to the Troops’ one.
Ride and Jeremy Martin drew roughing minors for a shoving match behind the North Bay net at 16:01, seconds after McIvor made rapid-fire stops against Laus and Martin with the rebound.
The Battalion plays host to the Niagara IceDogs at 2 p.m. Sunday on Military Appreciation Day presented by Gen7 Fuel.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Hallowe’en Costume Game presented by Expedia Cruises North Bay and Norwegian Cruise Line displayed results of a billet-player pumpkin carving contest … Trick-Or-Treat with the Troops invites fans to visit the arena from 5-8 p.m. Friday to get autographs and candy … The Battalion wore green sweaters at home because the ’Hounds were asked to don whites at Sudbury … After a 4-3 Soo road win Oct. 5, the teams complete the season series Jan. 24-25 at Sault Ste. Marie … The Battalion went 5-6-0 in October … North Bay was 1-for-5 on the power play. Soo went 1-for-8 … Opening lines had Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Moses and right winger Amidovski, Evgeny Dubrovtsev centring left winger Ihnat Pazii and right winger Nick Wellenreiter and Ryder Carey pivoting left winger Arseny Pronin and right winger Parker Vaughan. Centre Nolan Laird and left winger Jax Pereira had rotating linemates… Defence pairs were Ride with Brandt Harper, Aaron Enright with Greer and Jonathan Kapageridis with Adrian Manzo. Carter Kunopaski also saw action … The Battalion was without Briir Long, Declan Gallivan, Cam Warren and Ryder Cali … Warren’s Canada Red team at the U17 World Challenge at Truro, N.S., opens Sunday against Finland … Pereira, a fourth-rounder in the 2025 OHL Priority Selection, was called up from the junior A Powassan Voodoos. He scored one goal in the first two games of North Bay’s season.
