Postseason ‘in our hands’

With the North Bay Battalion striving to nail down an Ontario Hockey League postseason berth, in some respects the playoffs already have started for the Troops and Ottawa 67’s.

“We’ve been playing intense, playoff-type of on-the-line here for the last few weeks, and definitely wrapping up here even more so this weekend,” Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said Wednesday.

North Bay, which entertains the Oshawa Generals at 7 p.m. Thursday to open the final weekend of the schedule, has a two-point lead over Ottawa for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. After facing Oshawa, the Battalion visits the Niagara IceDogs on Friday night and hosts the Sudbury Wolves on Sunday.

The Battalion has a won-lost-extended record of 25-34-6 for 56 points, fifth in the Central Division. Ottawa is fourth in the East Division and ninth in the conference at 22-33-10 for 54 points.

Ottawa also has three games left, all on the road, against Niagara on Thursday night, the Erie Otters on Saturday night and the Brantford Bulldogs on Sunday. Any combination of points earned by North Bay or lost by Ottawa totaling five clinches the last playoff spot for the Battalion.

A tie for the eighth postseason berth is decided on the ice, not through a mathematical exercise, and requires a tiebreaker playoff game. Home ice is decided by the usual tie-breaking procedure, the first criterion being regulation and overtime wins, ignoring shootout results. The Troops lead 22-20 in the pertinent category.

But Oulahen, who said his charges have had games with a distinct playoff feel in recent days, especially a 5-2 home-ice win over Ottawa on March 9 and a 5-4 overtime loss Sunday to the visiting Barrie Colts, would have nothing to do with looking ahead to a tiebreaker.

“It’s in our hands. That’s the way I think our group has to look at it. It’s in our hands. If we take care of business, that’s what we’ve got to do.”

As the first order of business, Oshawa, 39-20-6 for 84 points, third in the East and fourth in the conference, poses a considerable challenge, despite a 3-1 loss to the Troops at the Tribute Communities Centre on Dec. 13.

“This is a really good, really good hockey team,” said Oulahen. “It’s tough because, even though they’re an Eastern Conference team, we’ve only played them once and, when I was looking back at it, they had a lot of guys missing right before Christmas at World Junior time.

“I had to watch a lot of video this week in the last few days, and they’re an impressive team, obviously built to win this year. They’ve got some high-octane guys.

“It’s just one of those nights where we’re going to have to focus on our game plan and, when we have the style that we want to play or things that we want to do, hopefully we can make it tough on their offensive players and have a good night tomorrow.”

Oulahen said that Aaron Enright, who went into concussion protocol after taking a hit in a 6-0 road loss to the Kitchener Rangers last Friday night, is “still going to take some time.”

Ethan Procyszyn paces the Battalion offence with a team-leading 31 goals and 28 assists for 59 points, while Jacob LeBlanc has 10 goals and a team-high 42 assists for 52 points, both in 65 games.

Shamar Moses has scored 12 goals and earned 35 assists for 47 points in 58 games since an Oct. 10 trade from Barrie, and Jacob Therrien has 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points in 54 games.

Beckett Sennecke tops Oshawa’s offence with a team-leading 36 goals and 49 assists for 85 points in 54 games, and Luca Marrelli has 18 goals and 53 assists for 71 points in 64 games. In 44 games, Calum Ritchie has 15 goals and 53 assists, tied with Marrelli for the team lead, for 68 points, while Colby Barlow has scored 31 goals and added 26 assists for 57 points in 59 games.

The game features Cascades Casino Night, when March Mania presents Battalion Awards Night, with individual season honours announced.