The North Bay Battalion continued their playoff push Wednesday as Highway 17 and geographical rivals the Sudbury Wolves came to town. The Troops would hand Sudbury their fifth straight loss, winning 3-2.
The Battalion (26-22-7-2) came into this game looking to rebound after a 5-4 overtime loss to the Oshawa Generals on Monday and the Wolves (14-36-6) have lost four straight.
The first period began with a lot of frantic play by both teams, however 7 minutes into the frame, Macauley Carson would put Sudbury up 1-0. Before the period would end, the Wolves would be up 2-0 thanks to Nolan Hutcheson finding the back of the net.
“We need to reset mentally and Stan Butler has shown us what we need to do and right now we are not doing what he showed us. We need to go out in the second and play like we usually do.” Defenceman Nick King said of the Battalion outlook in between periods.
The Troops came out flying early in the second as Luke Burghardt would break in on Sudbury netminder Jake McGrath, who would stop him, but Burghardt stayed with the rebound and passed it back to Justin Brazeau who potted his 36th of the campaign.
After a quiet end to the second, North Bay was desperate to score and tie it up in the third, and Luke Moncada obliged scoring his 8th to tie it at 2.
Tempers would flair after that as Burghardt hit McGrath with his stick and Emmett Serenstis came in to defend his goaltender and dropped the gloves, with Burghardt scoring the takedown.
The third period would end tied at 2, but 31 seconds into the extra frame, Jake Henderson ended it, giving the Troops a 3-2 victory over the Wolves.
After the game, head coach Stan Butler gave his take on the game. “The Wolves were more ready to play, but when Brazeau scored, it gave us momentum. I thought it was fitting Jake Henderson gets the winning goal as I thought he was our best player all night.”
The Wolves will return home before travelling to Kitchener to prepare to take on the Rangers on Friday at 7:30 p.m. followed by the Bulldogs on Saturday at 7 p.m. Fans can follow Friday’s game in Kitchener by tuning in to CKLU 96.7 or listening live on mixlr.com/sudburywolves.
