‘I thought we played smart and stayed on our toes. We gave up a couple of sneaky breakaways, but Mike looked good, he looked sharp in net making those saves’
The fight for home ice advantage is coming down to the wire. The North Bay Battalion and the Peterborough Petes entered the final weekend separated by just two points in the Eastern Conference standings. After Thursday that point gap remains as the Battalion prevailed 7-0 over the Brampton Steelheads at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens and the Petes defeated the Barrie Colts 4-3 in overtime, in Peterborough.
Despite the Battalion not being able to close the gap, they did their job and as Head Coach Ryan Oulahen put it, they took care of business.
“That would be the best way to describe it. Got out to a quick start which was good, and I thought we got even better as the game went on,” he says as his team led 5-0 going into the final frame. “You never know how your team is going to play in the third with such a big lead, but I thought we played smart and stayed on our toes. We gave up a couple of sneaky breakaways, but Mike (McIvor) looked good, he looked sharp in net making those saves.”
McIvor made 23 saves in all in his first game back since Jan. 8 when the Battalion (37-25-3-1) beat Ottawa 4-2. He made a couple of tough stops in the early going, including a big glove save to stop Zach Nyman from in tight at the 13:31 mark. He turned aside all 11 shots fired on him in the second, and then shut things down with another six saves to collect his 10th win of the season and his first shutout since Mar. 23, 2025.
“It feels good to get back out there, it felt familiar and the boys played great,” says McIvor, who kept himself focused in a game that felt like it had the makings of a blow out from the early stages.
“I’m mentally strong and no matter how much time is left in the period or what the score is, or if I haven’t face a lot of shots, I’m ready to go and that’s my job and I think I did a good job of that tonight.”
Another player who did his job well in beating Brampton was Ryder Cali. The 17-year-old Harvard commit finished with two more goals, giving him 16 on the season and extends his point streak (4-6-10) to seven games.
“It’s great to contribute on the score sheet but as a group this is huge to get the morale up and get going. It was a fun night, and I’m glad with how it turned out,” says Cali.
Cali (15) may have scored his best goal of the season in the first period. He broke in on the left side, and pulled the puck through the legs of a Brampton defender, getting himself into a wide-open spot in the slot and then roofed the puck over the shoulder of Steelheads goaltender Luke Johnson, to open the scoring 1-0 at 4:00.
“Once I got into that space, I’m not over thinking things. I check the goalie’s position, but really, I just tried not to think to hard, or overthink what I’m going to do and just try to get off a quick shot,” he says.
Sometimes you score beautiful goals like Cali’s. Other times you score downright ugly goals like the one that put North Bay up 2-0. The Battalion were generating some good puck movement in the attacking zone, and Nick Wellenreiter attempted a cross-ice pass, but that’s when Brampton forward Matej Stankoven stuck his stick in the way of the pass and it deflected right into the back of his own net, completely crossing up his own goaltender in the process. Wellenreiter got credited with the goal, his 22nd of the season at 10:26.
North Bay added to the lead at 8:15 of the second period. Reed Gee was in the box for high sticking, on what was the first penalty for either side in the game. They received some extra time as Gee took a double minor when his high stick cut Battalion captain Ethan Procyszyn. Kent Greer, who was voted as the Fan Favourite Player of the Year for the second straight season, started a rush up the ice and fed a pass inside the zone to Ryder Carey. Carey set up in the near side circle before firing a pass over to Evgeny Dubrovtsev (12) who ripped in a one timer from the top of the far-side circle, giving North Bay a 3-0 advantage.
Cali’s second of the game came just a few minutes later. The Troops forwards collapsed on the crease and as Johnson scrambled to corral the puck, it was knocked loose and right onto the stick of Cali. He pulled it around the goaltender and deposited the puck into the wide-open cage for his 16th of the season and a 4-0 North Bay lead at 12:09.
These are the types of nights that are catching the attention of a lot of scouts as Cali will be draft eligible for this years NHL entry draft and plenty of eyes are on him as a potential first-round pick. Oulahen says he’s not surprised by the attention that Cali is generating.
“Teams are raving about him. I mean who wouldn’t want a big bodied power forward, who has skill and just knows how to compete. He loves taking pucks to the net. Just like his second goal tonight, hanging around the front of the net and battling for the puck. And his first one showed off his speed and his skill and he’s proving that he is a special player,” says Oulahen.
Just as the period was coming to a close, North Bay made it 5-0. Cam Warren drove down the right-wing side on a two-on-one and at the last second dished it across the slot to a wide-open Nolan Laird (9) who finished the play by burying the puck at 18:34.
Laird, who finished the night with two points (1-1-2), says the team’s mentality all week has to have a strong finish to the season. He says, “Home ice is still on the line here. A couple of weeks ago when we played Oshawa, we got caught scoreboard watching and we didn’t take them as seriously as we should have. They have been a much better team since the deadline and they proved that. Brampton is in that same boat and so tonight it was a different mind set and we treated the Steelheads like any other team and it worked out.”
Warren (5) kept the good times rolling in the third period when he scored a highlight reel goal off a gorgeous individual effort. Warren circled the zone, found some space, drove to the net and snuck it between the shoulder of Peter Chlebowski and the cross bar, putting North Bay ahead 6-0 at 10:10. Chlebowski came in to relieve Johnson at the start of the third after the rookie netminder faced a full workload of 34 shots against through the first 40 minutes of play.
Adrian Manzo (3) rounded out the scoring with a slapshot from the point that found it’s way through at 17:52 to completely close the door with North Bay up by seven.
Only two games remain on the regular season schedule and Oulahen says as a coach, he’s hearing all the right things from his players who have said they are finding themselves in a similar situation to last year. Granted, last year they were fighting for their playoff lives, trying to capture the eighth and final playoff spot, while this year, they know they will be playing in the postseason, but striving for home ice advantage is something he wants to see his team work for up until the very final whistle.
“I love it, I love being in this situation. It keeps our team really engaged at this point. We’re fighting for something, we’re feeling like these are must win games. We’re going to have to get on the road tomorrow and play a heck of a hockey game in Brantford, which is what we’re going to have to do when we play Peterborough in the playoffs,” says Oulahen. “These are really good things to keep the momentum going.”
There will be plenty of scoreboard watching on Friday night when North Bay plays in Brantford, and the Petes play in Kingston. It could even come down to Sunday before it’s all said and done when North Bay hosts Sudbury and Peterborough hosts Oshawa.
Regardless of the outcome, the fact the Battalion are in this position one year after fighting tooth and nail just to make the playoffs is a tremendous tip of the cap to the entire team for the work they’ve put in since the end of the last season.