OHL North Bay Battalion

Double Jeopardy Fatal in Overtime

October 11, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


GUELPH, Ont. - It wasn't the Ontario Hockey League Championship Series, which was the case the previous time the North Bay Battalion faced the Guelph Storm, but there was no lack of drama when the teams clashed Friday night.

Stephen Pierog scored during a two-man advantage at 3:20 of overtime, giving Guelph a 3-2 victory over the Battalion, which had rallied from a 2-0 deficit.

The Troops were short a man after Brenden Miller went off for a phantom roughing call at 1:28, and Nick Paul followed Miller to the box at 2:59 for high-sticking. With Guelph skating five-on-three, Ben Harpur sent the puck to the left-wing circle to Pierog, who fired it past Battalion goaltender Jake Smith from a sharp angle.

Tyler Bertuzzi had one goal and one assist and Pius Suter also scored for Guelph, which won a fourth straight game to move its won-lost-extended record to 4-1-0 for eight points, tied with the Erie Otters for first place in the Midwest Division. Goaltender Justin Nichols faced 19 shots before a crowd of 3,910.

Jared Steege and Kyle Wood scored for North Bay, which lost 3-2 in overtime to the visiting Owen Sound Attack on Thursday night. The Battalion, which got 23 saves from Smith, is 2-0-3 for seven points, second in the Central Division, two points behind the Barrie Colts.

The Troops, who trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes, appeared to halve that deficit 47 seconds into the third period. With Guelph facing a penalty, Paul snapped the puck over Nichols's glove. After conferring with the video goal judge, referee Ben Wilson, without issuing a signal, had the game continue with the Battalion on the power play.

The Storm, which survived that penalty and another issued to Zac Leslie, was one second from killing a third consecutive minor, to Chadd Bauman for holding, when Steege took a pass from Kyle Locke and beat Nichols low to the stick side at 7:24.

The Battalion tied it with the man advantage at 15:57 when defenceman Wood moved into the left circle and, off a cross-ice Mike Amadio feed, wired the puck over Nichols's glove for a team-leading fourth goal of the season.

Bertuzzi opened the scoring on the power play at 13:32 of the second period, working the puck along the goal line from the right wing, moving around sprawled defender Marcus McIvor and shoving the disc under Smith.

Suter struck at 19:26 after Harpur barely kept the puck in the offensive zone. Smith made an initial save against Bauman, but Suter lifted the rebound over the fallen goaltender.

The Troops' best scoring chance of the period came in the 15th minute, when Nichols sprawled to foil a shorthanded breakaway by Zach Bratina. Nichols also was tested by two shots from Wood as well as attempts by David Sherman, Zach Poirier and Locke.

Smith was under siege numerous times in the scoreless first period. He dove to stop Adam Craievich's attempt at the rebound of a power-play shot by Harpur and denied Bertuzzi from the slot. Smith got a glove on a Bertuzzi shot from the right circle and finished the frame by reacting quickly to a Suter drive.

Nichols's toughest stop came with Guelph shorthanded when he stopped a Brett McKenzie shot and pounced on a loose puck with Mathew Santos looming at the lip of the crease.

The Battalion hosts Barrie at 2 p.m. Monday in its annual Thanksgiving Day game.

BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion played its second road game of the season. The first was a 6-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves last Sunday ... Guelph, which defeated North Bay in a five-game OHL final last May, is 2-1-0 at home ... Smith returned to the net after Evan Cormier made his first start of the season against Owen Sound ... The Troops were 2-for-7 on the power play. Guelph went 2-for-8 ... Opening line combinations included Paul centring Hampus Olsson on left wing and Amadio on right wing, McKenzie skating between left winger Bratina and right winger Alex Henriksson and Ray Huether centring Steege on left wing and right winger Santos. Sherman centred left winger Owen Green and Poirier on the right side ... The Battalion scratched Zach Shankar, Mike Baird, Mark Shoemaker and Calvin Gomes ... Guelph was without Bradley Van Schubert, Kyle Rhodes, Robby Fabbri and Justin Auger ... Bertuzzi and Bratina exchanged rights in a second-period fight ... Fabbri, assigned to Guelph by the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, has a shoulder injury. Leslie played for the first time since returning from the Los Angeles Kings ... Newly named Storm captain Jason Dickinson lost control of the puck on a breakaway with the teams skating four a side in the first minute of the second period ... Scott Ferguson was the other referee.

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