Troops prevail 5-4 in OT
It took 3:07 of overtime and a five-minute video review, but the North Bay Battalion secured a 5-4 Ontario Hockey League victory Thursday night over the Peterborough Petes, vaulting the Troops into first place in the Central Division.
Parker Vaughan scored his second goal of the game and season to complete North Bay’s comeback from 3-2 and 4-3 deficits for a third straight win before a crowd of 2,247 at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens.
Ihnat Pazii contributed one goal and two assists and Kent Greer one goal and one assist, while Bronson Ride also scored for the Battalion, which has a won-lost-extended record of 7-5-0 for 14 points, one more than the idle Niagara IceDogs.
Goaltender Mike McIvor gave up three goals on 15 shots before Jack Lisson relieved him to start the second period. Lisson excelled over the final 40 minutes and overtime, stopping 27 of 28 shots for the Battalion, which dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen in its Centurion uniforms.
Adam Levac and Brennan Faulkner had one goal and one assist apiece for the Petes. Brody Partridge and Matthew Soto provided the other goals.
Goaltender Easton Rye made 31 saves for Peterborough, 5-5-2 for 12 points, fourth in the East Division.
”It was a little bit of an ugly showing probably for both team at times, but I said to the team it’s hard to win in this league and you’ve got to win in all different ways and different fashions,“ noted Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen. ”It’s good to come out on the right side of a game like that.“
In overtime, Vaughan jammed the puck past a pile of bodies, but the play was signaled as no goal before the video review overturned that assessment.
”The refs were just making sure that the puck went in and it was continuous play, they didn’t blow the whistle too early, and it all checked out,“ said Oulahen of Vaughan’s winner, assisted by Pazii and Greer.
Pazii opened the scoring on the power play at 5:31 of the first period from traffic in the slot, beating the kneeling Rye low to the blocker side on the rebound of a Brandt Harper shot. Nick Wellenreiter had the other assist on Pazii’s second goal.
Vaughan struck at 8:13, putting home a backhanded pass from Ryder Cali behind the goal line from the lip of the crease. Harper also assisted.
Partridge ignited a three-goal Peterborough surge 30 seconds later, sneaking the puck past McIvor from deep on the left wing. Yanis Lutz and Gerry DiCunzolo assisted on Partridge’s first goal.
Levac tied it at 14:27, converting a backhanded chop pass from behind the goal line by Kaden McGregor, with Faulkner also assisting on Levac’s second goal.
Soto capitalized with the man advantage at 16:43, drilling home a rebound from the slot. Lutz and McGregor assisted on Soto’s sixth goal, tied with Adam Novotny for the team lead.
Greer connected at 6:00 of the second period, sweeping the puck from between the hash marks off a backhanded pass from Cali in the right corner. Aaron Enright also assisted on defenceman Greer’s second goal.
Faulkner replied with his fifth goal 36 seconds later, beating Lisson off the left shoulder on the short side, before Ride scored from the top of the left circle. Adrian Manzo and Pazii assisted on rearguard Ride’s second goal.
Vaughan appeared to score at 18:58, but video review resulted in the goal being waved off as offside, despite an earlier indication by referee Andre Grougrou of a valid goal.
The Battalion opens a two-game road trip with a visit to the Brampton Steelheads at 4 p.m. Saturday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: A moment’s silence was observed for John Hopper, onetime owner of the OHL’s North Bay Centennials, who died at 88 … It was Canor Construction Night, with miniature heavy equipment at work in a sandbox in the concourse … It was the first of four season meetings, with the next scheduled Nov. 27 at Peterborough … Cali has a five-game points streak in which he has four goals and as many assists for eight points … Pazii, Vaughan, Wellenreiter, Ride and Ethan Procyszyn each had four shots on goal for the Troops … Each team went 1-for-2 on the power play … Opening lines were Procyszyn centring left winger Shamar Moses and right winger Lirim Amidovski, Evgeny Dubrovtsev pivoting left winger Pazii and right winger Arseny Pronin and Cam Warren centring left winger Cali and right winger Vaughan. Left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Wellenreiter had various centres … Defence pairings had Ride with Harper, Enright with Greer and Jonathan Kapageridis with Manzo. Carter Kunopaski also saw action … Ride returned after losing two games to muscle spasms … The Battalion was without Briir Long, Declan Gallivan and Ryder Carey … Among Peterborough’s missing were Caden Taylor and Grayden Strohack, who started serving a five-game suspension issued after he drew a match penalty for fighting in a 6-4 road loss Sunday night to the Oshawa Generals … David Elford was the other referee.
