OHL North Bay Battalion

Highlight Goals Propel Battalion to Victory

March 18, 2016 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


SUDBURY, Ont. - It was the niftiest 50th.

And the overtime winner also was a thing of beauty.

Mike Amadio became the first player in franchise history to score 50 goals in a season and Mathew Santos netted the winner 1:18 into the extra period to give the North Bay Battalion a 4-3 victory over the Sudbury Wolves in a memorable Ontario Hockey League game Friday night.

In overtime, Kyle Wood fired a stretch pass from the Battalion goal line to Brett McKenzie at centre ice and, forced to feed off the puck, the spinning McKenzie dished it to Santos, who moved in on Sudbury goaltender Troy Timpano to beat him between the legs.

McKenzie and Max Kislinger also scored for North Bay, which improved its won-lost-extended record to 34-23-10 for 78 points, second in the Central Division and third in the Eastern Conference. Goaltender Jake Smith made 40 saves in his 29th win, surpassing the career high he set last season.

The Battalion, which clinched home-ice advantage for the conference quarterfinals with a 5-2 decision over the visiting Wolves on Thursday night, has a four-point lead on the Niagara IceDogs, who are fourth in the conference standings. Niagara has two games left to North Bay's one and would prevail on the first tiebreaker, which is wins.

Alan Lyszczarczyk, Mikkel Aagaard and Dmitry Sokolov each had one goal and one assist for Sudbury, which rallied from a 3-0 first-period deficit but slipped to 16-45-6 for 38 points, last in the division and the conference. The Wolves, 1-12-2 in their last 15 games, have suffered eight straight losses. Timpano made 22 saves before 3,818 at the Sudbury Community Arena.

With the Battalion skating four against three, McKenzie opened the scoring at 6:18 of the first period, banging the puck home from a scramble. It was McKenzie's 26th goal of the season and his 50th in the OHL.

Penalty killer Amadio struck at 12:34 after Santos broke up a Sudbury possession. Racing in alone from the blue line to leave Patrick Murphy in his wake, Amadio hoisted a backhander to the stick side. It was Amadio's eighth shorthanded goal, tied with Andrew Mangiapane and Kevin Labanc of the Barrie Colts for the OHL lead.

Kislinger scored at 18:05, squeezing down the right-wing boards to snap the puck over Timpano's glove from the top of the circle.

Lyszczarczyk got Sudbury on the board with a power-play goal at 10:02 of the second period, redirecting Kyle Capobianco's left-point shot into the top corner, before the Wolves scored twice in the third period to force overtime.

Aagaard connected at 11:08, one-timing the puck over Smith's right shoulder from the mid slot, before a questionable goaltender interference penalty to Kislinger negated an apparent goal by Wood at 16:50.

On the ensuing power play, Sokolov tied it at 17:34 with his team-leading 28th goal, driving to the net off the right wing and putting a backhander over Smith's glove.

The Battalion plays host to Barrie at 2 p.m. Sunday, the last day of the schedule.

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 18, 2016


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