BRAMPTON, Ont. - Evgeny Grachev scored two goals to pace the Brampton Battalion to a 4-3 victory Thursday night over the Kingston Frontenacs, extending the Troops' Ontario Hockey League winning streak to six games. Jason Dale was credited with the winning goal at 7:16 of the third period, 1:26 after Kingston's Nathan Moon tied it 3-3 on the power play. The winner should have gone to Thomas Stajan, who fired a shot from deep in the left-wing circle that caromed off goaltender Mavric Parks and went off a defender into the net.
Craig Moore scored the other goal for the Battalion, which improved its won-lost-extended record to 8-6-0 for 16 points and sole possession of first place in the Central Division. Matt Duchene earned two assists, and goaltender Patrick Killeen made 17 saves for his second consecutive win.
Josh Brittain and Zack Fenwick also scored for Kingston, 4-9-2 and fifth in the East Division. Parks faced 36 shots.
"I thought we were okay tonight, but we have room for improvement," said Battalion coach Stan Butler. "At times we got a little lazy and turned the puck over too much. When you're up two goals the next goal is a big one, and for us it was all right to give up one, but giving up two really shifted the momentum."
Moore opened the scoring at 16:32 of the first period, deflecting Matt Clark's shot from the right point past a screened Parks. The assist was Clark's first OHL point.
Both goaltenders came up with fine saves in the period. Killeen snared a George Lovatsis shot from the slot in the fifth minute, blocked a backhander by Kelly Geoffrey in the sixth and denied Lovatsis from the right-wing circle in the eighth.
"Patrick was solid tonight," said Butler. "That's all we ask from our guys."
Grachev made it 2-0 seven seconds into the second period, beating Parks to the blocker side from the left-wing circle.
The goal was the fastest from the start of a period in Battalion history, bettering by two seconds goals by Lukas Havel and Matt Smyth. Havel's goal, the fastest opening goal in club history, came in the first period of a 5-3 victory over the visiting London Knights on Nov. 21, 1999. Smyth's was in the second period of a 6-3 loss to the host Peterborough Petes on Nov. 11, 2006.
After the Grachev goal, Kingston struck twice within a span of 23 seconds to tie the game. Brittain slid a loose puck inside the left post at 4:01 before Fenwick's shot from the blue line found its way past Killeen's right arm.
Brittain's goal broke a road scoring drought of 144:01 dating to Andris Dzerins's goal at 4:38 of overtime in a 4-3 win Oct. 11 over the Plymouth Whalers. The Frontenacs then were shut out by the Windsor Spitfires and Belleville Bulls.
Grachev, with his fifth goal, put the Battalion back in front on the power play at 8:45, drilling home a Duchene pass from the deep slot. Moon tied it at 5:50 of the third period when he steered the puck around a fallen Killeen.
The Battalion scratched Kyle Pereira and Luke VanMoerkerke. Kingston was without James Marsden, Jesse Brown and Kevin Christmas.
Left winger VanMoerkerke, who had four assists in 13 games, cleared OHL waivers and was expected to join a junior B team. He had two goals and six assists for eight points in 66 games over two seasons after being acquired from London on Aug. 22, 2007.
The Battalion visits Peterborough at 7 p.m. Saturday. Fans in the Brampton area can see the game live on Rogers Cable 10.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: Attendance was 1,807... The Battalion went 1-for-6 on the power play. Kingston was 1-for-7 ... The Battalion has won its last six home games for a home record of 6-1-0. Kingston has lost its last three road games to fall to 1-7-0 away from home ... The Troops' last loss was a 4-3 setback to the host Sudbury Wolves on Oct. 11 ... Opening Battalion line combinations included Cody Hodgson centring Stajan on left wing and right winger Dale, Duchene pivoting left winger Grachev and right winger Scott Tanski and Kyle DeCoste centring left winger Stephon Thorne and right winger Michael Hasson. Sam Carrick centred Moore on left wing and Josh Shalla on right wing ... Stajan played his 100th game with the Battalion. He played 41 games with the Owen Sound Attack in 2006-07 before being acquired in a trade on Jan. 9, 2007 ... Duchene became a fulltime alternate captain with VanMoerkerke's departure. The duo had shared the 'A' ... Grachev extended a points streak to seven games. He has five goals and three assists for eight points during the run ... Killeen and Parks were goaltending partners with the Ottawa Valley minor midgets in 2005-06 ... Clark and Brittain engaged in a wrestling match in the second period ... Pereira sat out with a sore hip ... Geoffrey made his Frontenacs debut after being acquired in a trade from the Erie Otters on Wednesday ... Christmas, who played 20 games over two seasons with the Troops before being traded to Kingston on Oct. 25, 2007, is out at least two more weeks with a hand injury suffered in a fight against Brett Valliquette of the host Oshawa Generals on Oct. 5 ... The Battalion visits Kingston on Nov. 28.
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