Sports stats

OHL North Bay Battalion

Playoff Chase in Final Days

March 14, 2018 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - With the Ontario Hockey League's regular season set to end Sunday night, playoff participants have been decided, but no pairings have yet been established in the Eastern Conference.

The North Bay Battalion has three road games left on its slate as the preparation of Memorial Gardens for the World Women's Curling Championship is well under way. The Battalion faces the Peterborough Petes, who like the Sudbury Wolves are outside the playoff picture, at 7:05 p.m. Thursday before meeting the Kingston Frontenacs on Friday night and the Ottawa 67's on Sunday.

Stan Butler, the Battalion's director of hockey operations and head coach, is scouting the OHL Cup minor midget tournament at Toronto and likely will rejoin the Troops at Ottawa, with assistant coaches Adam Dennis and Scott Wray directing the bench at Peterborough and Kingston.

"It's an important weekend for us," Dennis said Wednesday in pinch-hitting for Butler at the weekly media scrum. "We want to make sure that we're feeling good going into the stretch, so really we want to create some good habits going into the playoffs. So that's what this weekend's all about, is putting a couple of good games together, having some good habits going into the playoffs and make sure that we feel good."

Dennis said the Battalion, third in the Central Division and sixth in the conference with a won-lost-extended record of 29-26-10 for 68 points, still is seeking to maximize its results.

"We're competitive guys. We want to finish as high as we can, so we're going into this weekend looking to get as high a seed as possible."

North Bay can finish as high as fifth and as low as eighth, the final conference playoff berth, and will face one of the Hamilton Bulldogs, Barrie Colts, Kingston and Niagara IceDogs in the first round, opening on the road. While the Troops still could catch fourth-place Niagara at 74 points and 32 wins, the IceDogs earned more points in head-to-head games.

The Oshawa Generals, who sat fifth in the conference with 71 points, were to visit third-place Kingston on Wednesday night. Other than the Bulldogs, the East Division champions who have two games left, the entire conference had three games to play before the Oshawa-Kingston clash.

The Mississauga Steelheads and Ottawa have 65 points apiece, with Mississauga holding the edge in wins at 31-28 in the seventh-place tie.

The entire playoff picture may not be clear until after the last game on the schedule, which has Sudbury at Oshawa on Sunday night.

Dennis said that centre Kyle Potts, who missed both ends of a home-and-home set with Sudbury last week with pneumonia, has returned to practice, while Kurtis Evans, who has played centre and right wing, remains sidelined with an upper-body injury. Left winger Daniel Walker also is out after surgery on a broken hand.

With three games in four days, Dennis suggested it's likely that both Christian Propp and Julian Sime will see action in the Battalion net.

Right winger Nikita Korostelev leads Peterborough in scoring with 29 goals and a team-high 45 assists for 74 points in 61 games. Left winger Logan DeNoble also has a team-leading 29 goals and 19 assists for 48 points in 56 games, while centre Semyon Der-Arguchintsev has 10 goals and 34 assists for 44 points in 65 games. Left winger Pavel Gogolev has scored 27 goals and added 16 assists for 43 points in 63 games.

Right winger Justin Brazeau paces the Battalion with a team-high 39 goals and 35 assists for 74 points. Left winger Luke Burghardt has scored 27 goals and earned a team-leading 42 assists for 69 points, and defenceman Adam Thilander has 12 goals and 30 assists for 42 points. All have played 65 games.

The game at Peterborough can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700 and heard on Country 600 CKAT.

Check out the North Bay Battalion Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 14, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent North Bay Battalion Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central