Romani, Wakely Power Battalion Victory
Anthony Romani and Dalyn Wakely each scored two goals and added two assists Saturday night as the North Bay Battalion downed the Peterborough Petes 7-4 in a crucial Ontario Hockey League game for both teams.
Owen Van Steensel had two goals and one assist and Sandis Vilmanis also scored for North Bay, which improved its won-lost-extended record to 36-20-8 for 80 points, tied with Mississauga Steelheads atop the Central Division and also with the East Division’s Brantford Bulldogs for second spot in the Eastern Conference.
Goaltender Mike McIvor produced 29 saves in a solid showing before a sellout crowd of 3,875 as the Troops, who opened a two-game road trip, moved to 14-5-0 in their last 19 games.
Tommy Purdeller scored two goals and earned one assist and Chase Lefebvre and Braydon McCallum also scored for Peterborough, who fell to 20-36-8 for 48 points, fifth in the East, and were eliminated from playoff contention.
Goaltender Liam Sztuska stopped 39 of 45 shots, as Romani scored his league-leading 52nd goal of the season into an empty net on a selfless pass from Wakely. Romani leads Carson Rehkopf of the Kitchener Rangers by one goal and, with 104 points, David Goyette of the Sudbury Wolves by one point atop the OHL scoring race.
Vilmanis opened the scoring at 5:33 of the first period. Jacob LeBlanc had the lone assist on Vilmanis’s 34th goal, his 24th in 26 games since a trade with the Sarnia Sting landed both players.
Lefebvre, on a screened snap shot at 8:41, tied it before Romani gave North Bay a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes, darting into open ice to seize the puck and beating Sztuska to the top right corner at 14:09.
Penalty killer Van Steensel converted a feed across the hash marks from Liam Arnsby at 9:13, and Wakely, taking a pass from Romani, swung across the crease to put his own rebound around Sztuska at 13:33.
Purdeller cashed a pass from the end boards to pull the Petes within a pair at 19:52 of the frame, then beat McIvor with a hard wrister from the left circle at 8:44 of the third period to make it 4-3. It was Purdeller’s 13th goal.
Wakely emerged from behind the goal line to the left of the net and fired the puck past Sztuska inside the right post at 11:18 on an unassisted effort that produced Wakely’s 37th goal and what proved to be the winner.
McCallum connected off a pass across the goalmouth for his team-leading18th goal on the power play at 13:19, and Van Steensel responded with his own man-advantage marker at 15:16 for his 39th goal on assists by Romani and Ty Nelson, who earned his 54th career power-play assist, tied with Dylan Blujus for fourth place on the franchise list.
With Sztuska gone for a sixth attacker, Wakely and Van Steensel assisted on Romani’s empty-netter at 17:56.
The Battalion faces the Kingston Frontenacs at 2 p.m. Sunday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: It was the third of four season meetings, with the teams splitting the first two with road wins. Peterborough won 6-5 in overtime Nov.16, and the Battalion prevailed 7-3 on Dec. 2. The Petes visit North Bay on March 24, the last day of the regular season … Wakely has an eight-game points streak in which he has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points. In 195 games, the Peterborough native has 87 goals and 92 assists for 19 points, 14th in franchise history, three more than the 15th-place Nelson, who has 48 goals and 128 assists for 176 points … Nelson led North Bay with seven shots on goal, while Wakely and Romani had six apiece and Van Steensel and Vilmanis were even at five. Purdeller paced Peterborough with six … The Troops’ Justin Ertel left a 4-2 home-ice win Thursday night over Brantford after taking a high hit, and Jacob Therrien was pulled from the Peterborough game with a lower-body injury … The Battalion went 1-for-3 on the power play. Peterborough was 1-for-5 … Opening lines saw Wakely centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Romani, Arnsby centring left winger Andrew LeBlanc and right winger Vilmanis and Ethan Procyszyn pivoting left winger Brice Cooke and right winger Therrien. Left winger Ihnat Pazii and right winger Lirim Amidovski had various linemates … Defence pairs were Wyatt Kennedy with Nelson, Tnias Mathurin with Paul Christopoulos and Bronson Ride with Jacob LeBlanc. Trevor McDowell also saw action.
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