North Bay, Saginaw Ready for Fight
February 10, 2016 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release
NORTH BAY, Ont. - One of the North Bay Battalion and Saginaw Spirit will be happy to taste victory after they do battle in Ontario Hockey League action at 7 p.m. Thursday at Memorial Gardens.
Saginaw, the onetime North Bay Centennials franchise, has lost its last five games, including one in overtime and one in a shootout, and has a won-lost-extended record of 20-26-6 for 46 points, fourth in the West Division and eighth in the Western Conference.
The Battalion, 25-17-8 for 58 points, is third in the Central Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference after losing three straight games, the last two in overtime, most recently 4-3 Tuesday night to the host Ottawa 67's.
Coach Stan Butler on Wednesday called it a "disappointing game."
"I thought we played well enough to win. Our biggest challenge right now is just putting everything together. Last night we had lots of offensive chances to put the game away in the second and third period and we didn't do that and we allowed them to get back in the game, and they got a bad goal in overtime and that was it."
Evan de Haan scored at 4:44 of the extra period, the goal coming two seconds after a weak slashing call against North Bay's Mike Amadio expired.
In the fifth game of a first-round 2013 playoff series, de Haan scored for a 1-0 overtime victory by the visiting Sudbury Wolves over the Battalion that spelled the end for OHL hockey in Brampton.
On Tuesday night, the Troops had ample opportunities to decide the issue, with penalty killer Amadio ticking the post early in the second period, Zach Shankar getting no shot away on a four-on-two rush later in the frame and Brady Lyle hitting the post against an open net off a give-and-go with Justin Brazeau early in the third period.
Penalty killer Amadio was foiled on a breakaway in the first minute of overtime, but the Troops already had a league-leading 20th shorthanded goal courtesy of Mathew Santos from an Amadio pass in the first period.
Captain Amadio has scored 30 goals and earned 39 assists for 69 points in 50 games, putting him two points behind his own record of 71 single-season points by a Battalion player since the move to North Bay for 2013-14. Amadio had 24 goals and 47 assists, the Gateway City high for the Troops, in a full 68-game schedule last season.
Nick Paul scored 37 goals, the most by a Battalion player since the relocation, in 58 games in 2014-15. Barclay Goodrow had 33 goals and 67 points a year earlier.
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