Rangers Celebrate Outburst

Jack Pridham scored at 13:29 of the third period, sparking a flurry of three goals in a span of 1:28, as the Kitchener Rangers downed the North Bay Battalion 5-2 Tuesday in the Troops’ traditional New Year’s Eve matinee.

Trent Swick had two goals and one assist, Pridham added an assist, and Evan Headrick and Tanner Lam each provided one goal. Goaltender Jackson Parsons made 23 saves as Kitchener, in its first appearance in the holiday eve game, moved its won-lost-extended record to 25-7-3 for 53 points, second in the Ontario Hockey League’s Midwest Division.

Shamar Moses scored one goal and earned as assist for the Battalion, which got its other goal from Owen Van Steensel. Goaltender Charlie Larocque faced 23 shots as the Battalion, which outplayed the winners for much of the game, dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen before a crowd of 3,161.

North Bay is 13-18-3 for 29 points, fifth in the Central Division. The Troops, who lost Jacob Therrien to injury in a 3-1 setback Sunday to the visiting Barrie Colts, have dropped six straight games, their last win a 3-1 road verdict Dec. 13 over the Oshawa Generals.

“For the most part, I liked a lot of the things that we did today,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. “We looked like a team that could play in waves a lot more today, especially that sequence there in the second period just before Moses made his goal. Those four or five minutes were probably our best of the year.

“Just in terms of a lot of things that we preach and how we want to do things, we’ve got to draw on some of the positives here today. We’d love to get a result, but we’re just on the verge of really breaking through, because we did a lot of really good things, and I’m going to draw on that.”

Kitchener, which trailed 2-1 through 40 minutes, tied it on Swick’s tally 20 seconds into the third period after a glaring turnover in the Battalion zone. The forechecking Pridham retrieved the puck behind the net and fed it in front to Swick for his 16th goal of the season.

Pridham fired the puck from the right side off a rush, with Luke Ellinas and Swick assisting on the winner, which trickled across the line behind Larocque, before the goaltender went behind his net and failed to corral the disc. It went to the right-wing corner, from where Headrick, the Rangers’ first-round pick in the OHL Priority Selection in April who made his league debut, fired it off Larocque from a near-impossible angle at 14:36.

Just 21 seconds later, Lam put a backhander into the net for his seventh goal.

Moses connected at 19:37 of the second period to give the Battalion its only lead. Jacob LeBlanc disrupted a Kitchener clearing attempt on the right boards and centred the puck to Moses, who put his ninth goal through traffic. Ethan Procyszyn also was credited with an assist.

The goal followed a concerted period of pressure that the Battalion applied up to the 16-minute mark, trapping the Rangers in their zone with the long change facing them. The likes of Procyszyn, Lirim Amidovski, LeBlanc, Moses and Kent Greer tracked down pucks and tested Parsons repeatedly.

Swick opened the scoring at 3:35 of the first period from the inner edge of the left circle off a rush. Ellinas and Carson Campbell assisted.

Van Steensel replied on the power play at 8:49, taking a back pass from Moses in the high slot and firing the puck to the far side after stepping into the top of the left circle. Procyszyn also assisted on Van Steensel’s 13th goal.

The Battalion plays host to the Peterborough Petes at 7 p.m. Thursday on Boart Longyear Night.

BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has a won-lost-tied record of 19-6-1 on New Year’s Eve, including a won-lost-extended log of 6-3-2 at North Bay. The Brampton Steelheads franchise, including its days as the Toronto and Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors and Steelheads, has been the opposition nine times. The Mississauga IceDogs made six appearances. The Sudbury Wolves have four, Oshawa three, the Ottawa 67’s two and the Kingston Frontenacs one … In 233 career games, Van Steensel has 75 goals and 99 assists for 174 points, one more than Anthony Romani and 17th in franchise history … Moses played his 100th game, his 29th with the Battalion since an Oct. 10 trade from Barrie … Therrien is expected to be sidelined four to six weeks with a separated shoulder … The Battalion went 1-for-5 on the power play. Kitchener was 0-for-2 … North Bay went 2-7-1 in December … Opening lines included Procyszyn centring left winger Moses and right winger Amidovski, Andrew LeBlanc pivoting left winger Van Steensel and right winger Nick Wellenreiter and Ryder Cali centring left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Briir Long. Centre Ryder Carey and right winger Stepan Chukharev had various linemates … Apart from Therrien, the Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Dylan Richter, Ihnat Pazii, Romani and Reyth Smith … Among the missing for Kitchener was Jakub Chromiak, with Slovakia at the World Junior Championship at Ottawa and suburban Kanata … Alex Joubert and Lacey Senuk were the referees. Photo/article credit- North Bay Battalion