Otters slip past Troops

NORTH BAY, Ont. — Stan Butler has coached a lot of Ontario Hockey League wins at Memorial Gardens. Until Thursday night, it was always for the North Bay Battalion in the last 25 seasons.

Butler took to the visiting bench with the Erie Otters, who were paced by Carey Terrance’s two goals and Alexis Daviault’s goal and two assists in skating to a 5-3 verdict before a crowd of 2,395.

Pano Fimis had one goal and one assist and Colby Saganiuk also scored for Erie, which played the fourth of eight straight road games and moved its won-lost-extended record to 17-28-5 for 39 points, last in the Midwest Division and Western Conference.

Goaltender Nolan Lalonde made 24 saves as Butler won for the first time in five games since assuming the Otters’ reins Feb. 4. His previous win was a 4-3 Battalion decision over the visiting Niagara IceDogs on Nov. 24, 2019.

Dalyn Wakely scored two goals and Anthony Romani provided the other for North Bay. Goaltender Charlie Robertson gave up four goals on 18 shots through two periods before being relieved by Dom DiVincentiis to start the third. He stopped all nine shots he faced, as Erie’s last tally was an empty-netter.

The Battalion is 35-15-2 for 72 points atop the Central Division but fell six points behind the East Division’s Ottawa 67’s for first place in the Eastern Conference as Ottawa edged the host Peterborough Petes 3-2. The Troops won 5-3 at Erie on Nov. 5, when B.J. Adams coached the Otters.

“It’s disappointing, because it’s such a massive game in terms of other teams are getting points around us, and we’ve got to keep in this fight,” said Ryan Oulahen, who succeeded Butler as Battalion coach on Dec. 10, 2019.

“I don’t think the guys sense the urgency right now, other than when we play against those opponents, but those other teams, they’re winning. They’re not losing games right now, so we’ve got to be way better.”

Having trailed 4-1 at the second intermission, the Battalion rallied with a pair of power-play goals, sparked by Romani’s 15th goal of the season at 4:04. Pasquale Zito and Avery Winslow assisted as Romani banked the puck of a defender from the right lip of the crease.

Wakely pulled the Troops within a goal at 7:39, one-timing the puck from the left faceoff dot on a feed from Winslow. Zito also assisted on the 26th goal for Wakely, who has four in the last three games.

With DiVincentiis gone for a sixth attacker, Terrance put his team-leading 23rd goal into the empty net on a cruise across the crease at 19:30.

With the teams having fought to a 1-1 tie through 20 minutes, Terrance struck on the power play at 14:45 of the middle period after the Battalion killed a two-man disadvantage lasting 1:07. Ondrej Molnar delivered the puck to the net front from the goal line on the right side, and Terrance snapped it home.

Fimis connected from the right dot at 17:35 for his 13th goal, his fifth with Erie since a trade from Niagara, assisted by Sam Alfano and Daviault, and Saganiuk weaved through the slot to the right side and put home what proved to be the winner at 18:08 on assists by Liam Gilmartin and Daviault.

Defenceman Daviault opened the scoring at 7:29 of the first period. Fimis forced a turnover in the Erie zone and raced up the ice, dishing the puck to Daviault on the left wing for his third goal, his first since a trade from the Sarnia Sting. Molnar also was credited with an assist.

Wakely tied it at 13:59, taking a centring pass at the blue line from Kyle McDonald and driving to the mid slot, where he used Daviault as a screen to wrist the rubber past Lalonde. Ty Nelson had the other assist.

The Battalion visits the Barrie Colts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the first of five consecutive road games. The game can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.

BATTALION BULLETS: The game featured Talk Today Night presented by Syngenta Canada and Grain Farmers of Ontario in conjunction with the Canadian Mental Health Association … Butler coached the Battalion to a won-lost-tied record of 667-737-52 in 1,456 games over 21-plus seasons in Brampton and North Bay, dating to expansion in 1998-99. He took the club to the OHL Championship Series in 2009 and 2014, where it lost to the Windsor Spitfires and Guelph Storm respectively. He ranks fifth all-time in OHL wins with 738, behind Brian Kilrea, Bert Templeton, Dale Hunter and George Burnett, and fourth in games coached with 1,593, behind Kilrea, Templeton and Burnett. Butler’s OHL record, including two seasons with the Oshawa Generals, is 738-790-65 … Erie’s last visit fell on Dec. 12, 2019, and marked Oulahen’s first game as coach. The Battalion won 4-3, with Brandon Coe, Brad Chenier and Mitchell Russell each producing one goal and one assist. Simon Rose netted the winner during a two-man advantage at 11:48 of the third period, and goaltender Joe Vrbetic made 30 saves … Erie’s Elias Cohen was taken from the ice on a gurney after being checked by Alexander Lukin at 1:42 of the third period … North Bay went 2-for-5 on the power play. Erie was 1-for-4 … The Battalion scratched Tnias Mathurin, Brayden Turley, Justin Ertel, Luc Brzustowski and Brett Bouchard.