OHL North Bay Battalion

Titlist Troops Host Desperate 67's

Published on March 15, 2014 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
North Bay Battalion News Release


NORTH BAY, Ont. - For fans of the North Bay Battalion, the gathering Sunday at Memorial Gardens figures to be largely about celebration.

For the Ottawa 67's, fighting for a chance at the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, there'll be more pressing concerns.

The Battalion clinched the Central Division championship with a 5-3 road victory Friday night over the archrival Sudbury Wolves, with former Wolves goaltender Brendan O'Neill making 31 saves and Brett McKenzie providing two goals, including the eventual winner.

Now the Troops, secure with the second seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs, are set to honour their season award winners and billets before the Ottawa game at 2 p.m. Sunday.

"There's still a lot of hockey left to be played," said Battalion coach Stan Butler. "There are games left that are important to other teams, and we have to be conscious of that." Ottawa has a won-lost-extended record of 23-38-6 for 52 points and stands ninth in the conference, in which the top eight teams qualify for the postseason. The 67's, seeking to catch the Mississauga Steelheads at 54 points, need help to get to a tiebreaker game for the final conference quarterfinal berth. The Niagara IceDogs and Mississauga have 55 and 54 points respectively, and all three teams have one game left. Niagara hosts the Peterborough Petes and Mississauga entertains the Kingston Frontenacs, both on Sunday.

The Battalion embarks on a best-of-seven conference quarterfinal against the seventh-place team, either Niagara or Mississauga, with home games next Friday night and Sunday.

"I'm happy for the players," said Butler, speaking in the bowels of the Sudbury Community Arena, which catered to a sellout crowd of 5,100. "They're the ones who win the games." None of the players could have taken greater satisfaction from the victory than O'Neill, making his first appearance in six games as Jake Smith, who has posted two shutouts in his last three starts, came down with either flu or food poisoning.

The Battalion acquired O'Neill's rights from Sudbury last Aug. 16 for a conditional 15th-round pick in the 2015 OHL Priority Selection. O'Neill, a fourth-round choice of the Wolves in 2010, played five games with Sudbury in each of the 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns, going 0-7-0, before manning the crease for three junior A clubs last season.

"I was pretty excited to play in Sudbury again," O'Neill told the North Bay Nugget. "And the fact that this clinches the division for us is huge.

"That's the biggest junior game I've ever played and we got the win. I'm happy about that." O'Neill, who played one of the seven previous games against Sudbury, a 2-1 home-ice loss via shootout Dec. 31, is 13-12-2 with a 3.12 goals-against average, an .887 save percentage and one shutout. "I've always said that we have two goalies who are capable of doing the job, and I guess this proves that once in a while I'm right," noted Butler.

Smith, suspected by athletic therapist James Borrelli of having contracted food poisoning after a 3-0 victory Thursday night over the visiting Oshawa Generals, spent the second period at Sudbury in the dressing room. McKenzie, who may have had flu, left after giving the Troops a 4-2 lead at 15:49 of the third period. The Battalion, which moved to North Bay for this season after 15 years in Brampton, captured its fifth division title and first since 2008-09.

It's the fourth division crown for North Bay and the first since the Centennials, who left the city in 2002, ending a 20-year history, won the Leyden Division and the OHL championship in 1993-94. The Centennials finished atop the Emms Division in 1985-86 and 1986-87.

Check out the North Bay Battalion Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 15, 2014


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.

OurSports Central