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OHL North Bay Battalion

Centennials Celebration a Winner for Troops

October 2, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - Maybe it was the reverberations of decades past, but the North Bay Battalion broke the goose egg in its wins column Friday night while wearing the colours of the old Centennials.

The Battalion held on for a 5-4 Ontario Hockey League victory over the Sarnia Sting on Centennials Alumni Night. Sting head coach and part owner Derian Hatcher was among the onetime North Bay torchbearers introduced before the game.

A Memorial Gardens crowd of 3,319 watched a video-board highlight package blending scenes of the Centennials and the new-era Battalion before welcoming four former Cents to centre ice.

Hatcher, Derek Switzer, Jamie Caruso and Nick Kypreos, now a hockey analyst on Rogers Sportsnet telecasts, received warm applause before the puck dropped.

The Troops, in Centennials sweaters and socks in the style worn by the 1993-94 OHL championship team, got two goals from Zach Bratina in snapping a season-opening three-game losing streak.

The game was especially significant for right winger Brett Hargrave, acquired in a trade earlier Friday from the Owen Sound Attack. Hargrave, 19, joins 16-year-old defenceman Brady Lyle, who's sidelined with a broken collarbone suffered in preseason, as North Bay natives on the team.

"It was really fun today," said Hargrave. "It's always great to get to wear the Centennials jersey and, growing up watching them, to get to play in that jersey was a really great experience."

Hargrave, who was Sarnia's first-round pick in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection from the Mississauga Rebels minor midgets, played for a hometown club for the first time since he was 14 with minor hockey's Trappers.

"The guys have been really good with me," he said of the reception in the Battalion dressing room. "They've welcomed me, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year."

After 20 years in North Bay, the Centennials were sold and relocated in 2002, becoming the Saginaw Spirit.

The game marked the third time that the Battalion has worn the Cents' colours. The Troops defeated Saginaw 5-1 on Jan. 23, 2014, in their first season in the Gateway City before losing 5-2 to the Oshawa Generals last Dec. 19.

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