Frontenacs take 5-1 win

Tuomas Uronen scored two goals and Cedrick Guindon had one goal and two assists to pace the Kingston Frontenacs to a 5-1 victory over the North Bay Battalion in an Ontario Hockey League game Sunday.

Gage Heyes contributed one goal and one assist and Jacob Battaglia the other goal for Kingston, which got 29 saves from goaltender Gavin Betts, making his OHL debut before 2,981 at Slush Puppie Place.

After the Frontenacs built a 5-0 lead through two periods, Shamar Moses scored the North Bay goal at 17:51 of the final frame to end Betts’s shutout bid.

Betts, the first goaltender chosen, was a second-round pick, 37th overall in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection from the Mississauga Rebels U16s. He has played nine games this season with the junior A Pickering Panthers, posting a 3.01 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. Nolan Lalonde, who was slated to face the Battalion, was scratched with flu.

Kingston, which played a third game in three days after a 4-1 road win Saturday night over the Brantford Bulldogs, has a won-lost-extended record of 15-6-4 for 34 points atop the East Division and Eastern Conference.

Goaltender Mike McIvor faced 37 shots for North Bay, 10-11-2 for 22 points and fifth place in the Central Division, as the injury-depleted Battalion completed a two-game eastern swing that started with a 4-1 loss Saturday night to the Peterborough Petes.

The Battalion, which lost 9-0 in its previous visit to Kingston on Oct. 4, was without coach Ryan Oulahen, who has Canadian Hockey League commitments this week. General manager John Winstanley ran the bench with assistants Bill Houlder and Matt Marquardt.

Kingston jumped to a quick 3-0 lead, sparked by Battaglia’s team-leading 16th goal of the season at 1:29 of the first period. Battaglia went to the left lip of the crease to convert a pass off a two-on-one rush, assisted by Matthew Soto and Tyler Hopkins.

Uronen struck 34 seconds later, darting through the left circle to rip home a loose puck. Luke McNamara and Quinton Burns had the assists.

Heyes capitalized on an odd-man rush for his eighth goal at 8:27, taking a cross-zone pass from Guindon and connecting from the left side. Ethan Miedema also assisted, extending a points streak to seven games in which he has three goals and eight assists for 11 points.

Betts, who made a solid right-pad save against Jacob LeBlanc on the power play after Riley Clark went off for tripping at 9:23, foiled Briir Long in alone in the 14th minute.

Guindon scored shorthanded at 4:07 of the second period, teaming with Heyes to take advantage of a gaffe at the Battalion blue line, and Uronen connected on the power play at 7:27, one-timing an Emil Pieniniemi pass from high in the left circle. Guindon also assisted on Uronen’s 12th goal.

A would-be goal by Battaglia at 14:00 was overturned on video review when it was ruled that he had kicked the puck into the net.

The Troops had three power-play opportunities and Kingston two in the third period before Moses seized a loose puck and put it past Betts, the disc slithering across the goal line. It was Moses’s fifth goal.

The Battalion plays the first of back-to-back road games against the Soo Greyhounds at 7:07 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.

BATTALION BULLETS: Oulahen, an assistant coach with the entry, left Sunday to join the CHL team that will face the United States National Under-18 Team in the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at London and Oshawa respectively. The games feature players, selected by the National Hockey League’s central scouting department, eligible for the 2025 NHL Draft … As at Peterborough, the visiting Battalion wore white sweaters on the road, contrary to OHL practice before Jan. 1 … Kingston, which won 6-2 at North Bay on Oct. 27, visits Memorial Gardens on Jan. 9 … LeBlanc saw the end of a six-game points streak in which he had one goal and 10 assists for 11 points … The Battalion went 0-for-7 on the power play. Kingston was 1-for-4 … Opening lines had Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Owen Van Steensel and right winger Jacob Therrien, Long pivoting left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Moses and Ryder Carey centring left winger Reyth Smith and right winger Lirim Amidovski. Centre Dylan Richter and left winger Natan Teshome had rotating linemates … Defence pairings saw Bronson Ride with Wyatt Kennedy, Zach Wilson with Brayden Turley and Aaron Enright with LeBlanc. Tyson Rismond also saw action … The Battalion was without Declan Gallivan, Kent Greer, Ihnat Pazii, Anthony Romani, Stepan Chukharev and Andrew LeBlanc … Mason Vaccari backed up Betts … Blake Beer and Scott Ferguson were the referees. photo/article credit - North Bay Battalion