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OHL North Bay Battalion

Mangiapane Spurs Colts to 2-1 Decision

January 15, 2015 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - Andrew Mangiapane scored the lone shootout goal to lift the Barrie Colts to a 2-1 victory Thursday night over the North Bay Battalion in a battle between the Ontario Hockey League's Central Division leaders.

Mangiapane tied the game with a goal midway in the third period and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood faced 36 shots through overtime for Barrie, which has a won-lost-extended record of 25-13-2 for 52 points atop the division. The Colts are 14-2-0 in their last 16 games.

Brett McKenzie scored for North Bay, 20-10-8 for 48 points, second in the division with two games in hand. Goaltender Jake Smith made 28 saves through overtime before a crowd of 3,871 as the Battalion honoured Nick Paul, who won a gold medal with Canada at the World Junior Championship.

The Troops are 2-1-2 against Barrie, which hosts the finale of the six-game season series on Feb. 26.

"It was a hardfought game," said Battalion coach Stan Butler. "Both teams really played hard. You have to capitalize on your chances, and any way you look at it we didn't do that. We had opportunities, but opportunities are no good unless you take advantage of them. Jake played a really strong game. Both goalies played well.

"We have to hit the net with our shots. We missed the net a lot. Just because we've added some players doesn't mean we should change the style that we play. We're trying to play a too-fancy game. I want to see us play a pro-style game, up and down the ice with short passes and support, and tonight we didn't do that."

McKenzie collected his fifth goal of the season at 18:58 of the second period, three seconds after an interference penalty to Barrie's Rasmus Andersson expired. Blackwood kicked the rebound of a Marcus McIvor shot from the left point to McKenzie, who fired the puck into a gaping net.

Mangiapane replied at 9:47 of the third period, redirecting Ben Harpur's shot from the blue line over Smith's blocker.

Both teams pressed for the go-ahead goal. Seconds after Hampus Olsson and Mike Amadio failed to get bouncing pucks behind Blackwood, Smith sprawled to get his right pad on a Brendan Lemieux shot from the deep slot.

Each team had time with the man advantage in overtime, in which the Battalion held a 5-1 edge in shots. The Colts had the best chance, with Smith making a fine save on Lemieux in close.

In the shootout, Blackwood foiled Alex Henriksson and Ryan Kujawinski before Amadio fired the puck off the right post. Mangiapane beat Smith with a forehand deke before the goaltender stopped Kevin Labanc.

The teams traded chances in a high-tempo first period, in which there were long stretches between whistles. Barrie outshot the Troops 10-8.

The Battalion visits the Niagara IceDogs at 7 p.m. Friday. The game can be seen live in North Bay on TVCogeco Cable 12 and heard on Country 600 CKAT.

BATTALION BULLETS: Paul saw the end of an eight-game points streak dating to Nov. 27. He scored four goals and earned six assists for 10 points in the span ... The Battalion went 0-for-5 on the power play. Barrie was 0-for-4 ... Opening line combinations included Amadio centring Kujawinski on left wing and right winger Olsson, Paul centring McKenzie on left wing and right winger Henriksson and Ray Huether pivoting left winger Mike Baird and right winger Mathew Santos. Zach Poirier centred left winger Owen Green and Mark Shoemaker, normally a defenceman, on right wing ... The Troops were without Zach Shankar, Zach Bratina and Nick Moutrey ... Harpur and Stephen Nosad, acquired before the trade deadline last Friday, each played a second game with Barrie ... Labanc had league-high points and assists streaks of 25 and 15 games respectively snapped. He had 15 goals and 37 assists since last being held without a point, by the visiting Sarnia Sting on Oct. 30 ... Barrie's Joseph Blandisi saw the end of a five-game scoring streak during which he had nine goals. The National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils announced his signing Wednesday ... The Troops wore shoulder patches in honour of the 200th anniversary last Sunday of the birth of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister. Every OHL team was to wear the patches once.

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