OHL North Bay Battalion

First-place Battalion preparing for busy three-game weekend

Published on October 26, 2004 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


BRAMPTON, Ont. – Despite losing its three Ontario Hockey League games last week, the Battalion remains in first place in the Central Division as its divisional rivals also struggled to win games.

The Barrie Colts, Mississauga IceDogs, Sudbury Wolves and Toronto St. Michael's Majors compiled a joint won-lost-tied record of 2-6-3 from Wednesday through Sunday, including wins by Barrie and Sudbury over the Battalion.

With all the decisions coming in regulation time and no garbage points being awarded for losing, the Battalion is one point up on Mississauga and two points ahead of the Wolves.

"It was a tough weekend for us," said overage left winger Dan McDonald. "We had a couple of games that we should have won, but we got lucky when some of the other teams in our division didn't do well either.

"I know teams like Mississauga and Sudbury didn't have the greatest weekends and, if they had won two or three games, this division would look entirely different right now."

The week's results did cost the Battalion first place in the Eastern Conference. The visiting Belleville Bulls of the East Division beat the Sarnia Sting 3-2 in overtime Saturday night to move to 8-4-1 for 17 points, one more than the Battalion at 7-5-2.

The Troops returned to practice Tuesday looking to work on the parts of their game that helped them climb to the top of the division.

"We were getting away from dumping the puck in, and I thought we might have played too much as individuals this weekend," said McDonald. "I hope that weekend was an eye-opener for us, because it shows us that we have to play as a team to be successful.

"We have to be a hard-working team, and we were when we were winning earlier this season. I think we got away from that and little things like getting the puck in deep."

The Battalion had a six-game unbeaten streak snapped Thursday night in a 3-2 loss at Barrie. The following night the Troops lost 5-3 to the homestanding Oshawa Generals before losing 6-3 to visiting Sudbury on Sunday.

"We didn't come out hard against Barrie and that hurt us, and I feel we should have won the Oshawa game," said McDonald, who has four goals and nine assists for 13 points this season. "If we had played a better all-round game against Sudbury, or even had a better third period, we would have beaten them."

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from October 26, 2004


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