The Sudbury Wolves made it interesting, but Hanmer’s Brad Chenier scored three goals against his hometown team as North Bay won 6-5 on Sunday afternoon.
“It felt good, especially in front of friends and family, and I’m happy we got the win,” said Chenier.
For Sudbury, it was a disappointing effort.
“We had guys who didn’t show up to play hockey, and that’s unfortunate in probably the biggest game of the year,” said Wolves head coach Cory Stillman.
“Our top guys weren’t our top guys, and that’s the difference of the hockey game. Our young guys came out and played well and we need more out of everybody.”
Sudbury has strung together just one winning week or weekend this season, and this weekend looked like it would be No. 2 after their 8-2 win in Barrie.
“Yeah it’s pretty frustrating when that happens; it just comes down to concentration and inconsistency,” said Drake Pilon. “We have to find how to do that night in, night out, that’s how teams win.”
Pilon, who finished with a goal and two assists, was a bright spot along with Shane Bulitka, who had two points, and Anthony Tabak, who scored and was a plus 2.
It was the third game between the northern rivals this season and the third 6-5 win for North Bay.
“On one side, you can see that we can score goals, but our biggest thing is defending them, and as a staff, we didn’t like the goals that were scored against us, so we’ll go back and work on it,” said Stillman.
“But we can produce when we work hard and we compete. When we take the foot off the pedal or expect someone else to do all the work, it ends up in the back of our net.”
The Battalion snapped a six-game losing streak in the process.
The Troop jumped out to the early lead as rookie Brandon Coe carried the puck, and, before he circled the net, tossed it into the pads of Jake McGrath, where it got caught up and went into the net.
Tabak evened up the game, passing the puck on a two-on-one with Pilon.
Pilon went backhand, which fluttered and hit the post and Tabak got to the puck first, scoring his second on the season.
Brad Chenier scored to make the game 2-1 and Justin Brazeau added a goal just over a minute later to end the first period 3-1 with the shots 13-11 for North Bay.
After the third goal, Stillman made the change in net from McGrath to Marshall Frappier.
Luke Burghardt made the game 4-1 on a bad Sudbury turnover in their own zone.
Darian Pilon scored on a great individual effort as he held off Riley Bruce and slid home the puck underneath Julian Sime.
The second period ended 4-2 for North Bay.
Chenier scored his second of the game around the eight-minute mark of the third to make it 5-2.
Reagan O’Grady made it 5-3 with a point shot that found the back of the net, but Chenier had the answer 19 seconds later. Pilon brought the game closer at 6-4 with 5:58 left and the Wolves had life.
Stillman pulled the goalie with over three minutes to play, which paid off as Michael Pezzetta scored his 11th of the season as it was then 6-5 with 2:10 to go.
The Wolves had a few chances late, but it was the Battalion who held on to walk out of Sudbury victorious.
North Bay moves to within a point of Sudbury in the standings.
Sudbury will head on the road for a game on Wednesday in Sault Ste. Marie, then they are back home for weekend games against Peterborough and Kitchener.
