London defeats Battalion

Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey each scored one goal and added an assist to pace the London Knights to a 4-1 victory over the North Bay Battalion in Ontario Hockey League action Thursday night.

Henry Brzustewicz and Sam Dickinson also scored for London, which boasts a won-lost-extended record of 35-7-1 for 71 points atop the Midwest Division, Western Conference and league. The Knights defeated the visiting Troops 6-2 on Nov. 8 in the teams’ other meeting.

Goaltender Austin Elliott faced 32 shots in moving his personal record to 19-0-0.

Kent Greer scored for the black-clad Battalion, 16-23-3 for 35 points, fifth in the Central Division. With Barkey’s goal an empty-netter, goaltender Mike McIvor allowed three goals on 35 shots before a crowd of 2,659 on a day that OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford visited North Bay.

Greer opened the scoring at 4:35 of the first period, firing home a loose puck in the high slot. Ethan Procyszyn had the lone assist on defenceman Greer’s third goal of the season.

London wasted no time responding, tying the game 36 seconds later when blueliner Bonk cruised to the net and beat McIvor low to the glove side. The visitors took the lead at 15:52. Seconds after McIvor lunged to block a Sam O’Reilly drive from the left circle, defenceman Brzustewicz connected on a low shot.

The Battalion, which held a 14-12 edge in shots, enjoyed the only two power-play opportunities in the period, with its best chance coming in the 13th minute when Parker Vaughan tried to shovel the puck past Elliott from the lip of the crease.

The Troops killed two early London power plays early in the penalty-filled middle period, but rearguard Dickinson struck with the man advantage at 9:22 for his 18th goal, tied for the team lead. Bonk left a loose puck in the neutral zone for a charging Dickinson, who raced into Battalion territory and put a hard wrister high over McIvor’s glove.

London tested McIvor several times over the second half of the frame, but the goaltender denied a close chance on the power play by Landon Sim in the 13th minute and, seconds later, sprawled to foil Blake Montgomery’s drive from the slot. North Bay’s best chance came in the 15th minute when Lirim Amidovski broke in alone on Elliott, but the goaltender was tight to the right post to deny the opportunity.

The Battalion had some good chances in the first half of the third period, but Elliott turned aside Vaughan and Shamar Moses and later denied a drive off the right wing by Bronson Ride.

London forced McIvor to make two outstanding stops. He slid across the crease to get his left pad on a Barkey attempt with much of the net targeted in the 13th minute and got in the way of a Jacob Julien backhander from the lip of the crease in the 14th.

McIvor went to the bench for a sixth skater with 2:42 left to play. The Battalion was unable to generate a good scoring chance, and Barkey hit the vacant cage at 19:11.

The Battalion plays host to the Sudbury Wolves at 2 p.m. Sunday on Northlander Day presented by Ontario Northland.

BATTALION BULLETS: On Soiree Carnival Night, organized with the help of Les Compagnons, Bonhomme took part in the pregame faceoff and battled Sarge in a second-intermission shinny game … Reyth Smith fought Brzustewicz  at 15:37 of the second period, hanging tough and getting the takedown … The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. London was 1-for-7 … Commissioner Crawford, who succeeded David Branch in August, is nearing completion of a tour of all 20 OHL centres. Accompanied by Cole Butterworth and Brodie Barrick of the league office, he met Battalion staffers in the hockey and business operations, toured North Bay, had lunch with city officials, inspected the players’ facilities and held a news conference before watching the game from owner Scott Abbott’s suite … The Troops are to practise outdoors at noon Saturday at Callander’s Bill Barber Complex. A public skate is set for 1 p.m., and team personnel will sign autographs … Opening lines saw Procyszyn centring left winger Moses and right winger Amidovski, Zach Wigle pivoting left winger Andrew LeBlanc and right winger Jacob Therrien and Ihnat Pazii centring left winger Nick Wellenreiter and right winger Vaughan. Nolan Laird centred left winger Smith and right winger Ryder Carey … Therrien returned after missing eight games with an upper-body injury suffered Dec. 29 in a 3-1 loss to the visiting Barrie Colts … The Battalion was without Brayden Turley, Briir Long and Stepan Chukharev.