Overtime win tightens race
Kent Greer scored at 1:21 of overtime to lift the North Bay Battalion to a 3-2 comeback victory Thursday night over the Brantford Bulldogs, pulling the Troops within a point of the Peterborough Petes in their battle for playoff positioning in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
Bronson Ride and Kaden Pitre also scored for the Battalion, while goaltender Jack Lisson contributed 31 saves in another sterling performance before a crowd of 2,238 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
North Bay improved its won-lost-extended record to 36-25-3 for 75 points, second in the Central Division and fifth in the conference. Fourth-place Peterborough fell 3-2 to the visiting Oshawa Generals.
The Battalion and Petes have four games apiece left to play in the fight for home-ice advantage in a near certain postseason matchup. Peterborough visits North Bay at 2 p.m. Sunday in the most important game of the season to this point.
Caleb Malhotra had one goal and one assist and Cooper Dennis the other goal for the Bulldogs, who led 2-0 at the first intermission. Goaltender Ryerson Leenders provided 33 saves.
Brantford, which saw a five-game winning streak ended, is 44-9-10 for 98 points atop the East Division, conference and league.
“I thought we played really well tonight,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. “You always give them credit. They have a lot of talent over there, and then I thought maybe for the first period we were almost like a little bit too controlled, sitting back a little bit.
“Maybe it was a good thing getting down, because it just opened our legs up a little bit. We came out so good in the second period. I mean that period right there is exactly how we want to play.”
The win was Oulahen’s 258th as a head coach, tying him with Greg Walters of the Windsor Spitfires and Chris Lazary of the Saginaw Spirit for 25th place on the OHL career list.
Greer slipped to the inner edge of the right circle and beat Leenders, who was screened by Ben Danford, high to the far side. Defenceman Greer’s 10th goal of the season was assisted by Sebastien Gervais and Ryder Cali.
Pitre precipitated overtime at 13:25 of the third period, taking a stretch pass from Ethan Procyszyn and breaking in alone on Leenders, deking the goaltender and putting the puck past his left pad on the backhand. It was the 17th goal for Pitre and his 12th in 34 games since arriving from the Flint Firebirds.
Malhotra opened the scoring on the power play at 10:48 of the first period after Lirim Amidovski went off for delay of game. Malhotra got loose in the right circle for a backdoor play on a pass from Adam Benak. Adam Jiricek had the other assist on Malhotra’s 29th goal, which deflected off Ride at the crease.
Dennis doubled the lead with his 33rd goal at 19:27 as the Bulldogs got a bounce and darted down the ice on an odd-man rush. Off a Malhotra pass, the puck deflected off Dennis’s skate into the open net from the right side. Philip Govedaris had the other assist.
The Battalion applied sustained pressure early in the second period before a pause to replace a cracked pane of glass slowed the momentum in the eighth minute, but the Troops struck at 17:06 when Ride fired from high on the left wing, apparently leaving Leenders undecided as to how to block the threat. Procyszyn and Nick Wellenreiter drew assists on defenceman Ride’s fourth goal.
Lisson produced a solid stop against Charlie Paquette in the right circle at 13:53, and Leenders made a shoulder save against Nolan Laird on a breakaway in the 16th minute.
Two Battalion defencemen left the game, Aaron Enright after the first period and Ride in the second, with Laird assigned blue line duty on a third-period penalty kill as the Troops were reduced to four rearguards.
The Peterborough visit Sunday features a St. Patrick’s Day Party presented by Redpath.
BATTALION BULLETS: The game marked Country Night presented by Gateway Golf … It was the third of four meetings, with the Battalion having gone 2-1-0. The Troops lost 7-2 at Brantford on Dec. 6 before winning 5-4 in overtime at home Jan. 22. The final meeting is March 20 at Brantford … In 254 games, Procyszyn has 85 goals and 90 assists for 175 points, tied with Howie Martin for 16th place in franchise history … Greer, Ride and Wellenreiter led the Battalion with four shots on goal apiece. Luca Testa paced the Bulldogs with six … North Bay went 0-for-1 on the power play. Brantford was 1-for-2 … Opening lines had Procyszyn centring left winger Pitre and right winger Wellenreiter, Cali centring left winger Gervais and right winger Amidovski and Cam Warren pivoting left winger Laird and right winger Parker Vaughan. Evgeny Dubrovtsev centred left winger Arseny Pronin and right winger Ryder Carey … Defence pairings were Ride with Hayden Barch, Enright with Greer and Carter Kunopaski with Adrian Manzo … The Battalion scratched Jonathan Kapageridis, Brandt Harper, Alexander Karmanov and Shamar Moses … Mike McIvor, in uniform for the first time since suffering an injury late in a 4-2 victory Jan. 8 over the visiting Ottawa 67’s, backed up Lisson … Among the missing for Brantford was Jett Luchanko … Brantford’s Ryder Boulton finished a two-game suspension issued after he received a fighting major in a 5-1 home-ice win last Friday night over Saginaw.
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