Make it two in a row for the North Bay Battalion after a 9-2 victory over the rival Sudbury Wolves.
The game got off to a fast start as Kyle McDonald (29) potted his first of two on the evening past Wolves netminder Jonathan Lemaire just over a minute into the game. Almost two minutes later, Kyle Jackson (21) scored his first of three. After some back and forth play for almost eight minutes, former first overall pick in the 2020 OHL priority selection, Ty Nelson (7) made it 3-0 North Bay as the scoring picked up.
Still in the first, Jackson (22), and Anthony Romani (4) added on to make it 5-0, which ended up seeing Lemaire pulled in favour of Mitchell Weeks. With just under a minute left to play, Romani (5) beat Weeks for his second of the game, before Evan Konyen (13) got Sudbury on the board with just five seconds to go in the first. All told, there was seven goals scored in the period, North Bay led 6-1.
It was a more subdued second period as Lemaire was back between the pipes for the Wolves. However, Podolioukh (5) scored the lone goal of the period with under four minutes to play.
Starting off the third at just under four minutes in, Jackson (23) added his third for the hat trick goal. In the nine games since returning from a long injury lay-off, Jackson has 8 goals and 3 assists for 11 points in that stretch.
Just over three minutes later, Andre Anania (3) beat Troops netminder Dom DiVincentiis to give Sudbury two on the night. As he had started the scoring, McDonald (30) capped off the game to give North Bay the 9-2 final.
With McDonald hitting his 30th of the season (12 goals with North Bay), it’s the first time the team has seen four 30+ goal scorers in the same season since the move to North Bay (Brandon Coe, Matvey Petrov and Mitchell Russell all have 30 on the year). The Troops previously had three 30+ goal scorers in 2018/19 thanks to Justin Brazeau (61), Matthew Struthers (31) and Bradley Chenier (30).
The Wolves welcome the Kingston Frontenacs to Sudbury Arena tonight and then they welcome the Barrie Colts for a Sunday afternoon tilt. With a record of 18-28-3-2, the Pack sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, and 18th overall.
