Kingston batters Battalion
Matthew Soto had two goals and one assist and goaltender Nolan Lalonde made 21 saves for the shutout, pacing the Kingston Frontenacs to a 9-0 rout Friday night of the North Bay Battalion in Ontario Hockey League action.
Jacob Battaglia provided one goal and three assists, and Cedrick Guindon and Ethan Miedema each had one goal and two assists for Kingston, which got one goal and one assist from both Emil Pieniniemi and Tyler Hopkins. Luke McNamara and Ben Pickell were the other scorers for the Frontenacs, who led 4-0 and 8-0 at the intermissions.
Overager Lalonde posted his third career shutout and first with Kingston after two staffing the crease for the Erie Otters.
The Frontenacs, who may still have been smarting from a five-game first-round playoff ouster at the hands of the visitors last spring, won for the first time in three games at the Slush Puppie Centre and have a won-lost-extended record of 2-2-0.
Starting Battalion goaltender Mike McIvor allowed six goals on 22 shots before being relieved by Charlie Larocque, who gave up three goals on 15 shots before a crowd of 2,937.
The Troops, who rallied from a three-goal first-period deficit to a 5-3 victory Thursday night over the Peterborough Petes, played the second of three road games in as many days.
North Bay suffered its first loss in four games to start the season as Kingston played the third of six straight home games.
Pieniniemi ignited the first-period outburst on the power play at 9:04. Guindon won the draw back to the left point to defenceman Pieniniemi, who fired the puck through traffic three seconds after Ihnat Pazii went off for hooking.
Hopkins scored at 14:52 after Miedema beat an icing call and slipped the puck to Uronen behind the net. He fed it in front to Hopkins, who whipped it past McIvor.
Soto capitalized at 19:36, as Kingston staged a four-on-one rush against Brayden Turley. Battaglia delivered the disc from deep on the left wing to the front, where Soto redirected it into the net.
The Frontenacs continued their assault in the middle period, with McNamara converting a clockwise wraparound at 5:59, assisted by Gage Heyes and Battaglia, and Miedema cashing a rebound with McIvor sprawled prone at 7:34, ending the goaltender’s night.
Battaglia netted his team-leading fourth goal of the season at 15:08 off a solo break-in and forehand deke, and Soto tied him with his fourth goal at 17:43, beating Larocque cleanly from the right circle off a rush, assisted by Battaglia and Pieniniemi.
The teams traded power plays after that before Reyth Smith and Kingston’s Xander Velliaris tangled at 18:49. Each received a fighting major, with Smith handed a boarding minor and Velliaris an instigating penalty and misconduct.
The Battalion completes its eastern swing against the Ottawa 67’s at 3 p.m. Saturday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion’s worst shutout loss occurred in the club’s expansion season, when the host Sarnia Sting thrashed Brampton 11-0 on Nov. 5, 1998 … North Bay’s previous shutout loss was a 4-0 setback to the host Oshawa Generals on Jan. 29, 2023 … The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Kingston was 1-for-4 … Owen Van Steensel led the Battalion with five shots on goal as nobody else had more than two. Soto was the shots leader for Kingston with six … Opening lines featured Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Van Steensel and right winger Anthony Romani, Andrew LeBlanc centring left winger Pazii and right winger Lirim Amidovski and Nolan Laird pivoting left winger Natan Teshome and right winger Jacob Therrien. Ryder Carey centred left winger Smith and right winger Stepan Chukharev … Defence pairings were Bronson Ride with Wyatt Kennedy, Turley with Jacob LeBlanc and Aaron Enright with Kent Greer … The Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Dylan Richter, Dalyn Wakely, Tyson Rismond and Zach Wilson … Enright made his OHL debut … Therrien returned from a two-game suspension resulting from a head-checking major and game misconduct in a 4-0 home-ice win over Peterborough in the Troops’ season opener Sept. 27 … Kingston scratched Lukas Moore and Jakub Chromiak, the latter a third import who has yet to see action this season. Pieniniemi and Uronen are the others … Dave Lewis and Sean Reid were the referees.
