MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Angus MacDonell’s second goal of the game, at 4:36 of the third period, snapped a tie and sent the Mississauga Steelheads to a 4-1 Ontario Hockey League victory Wednesday night over the North Bay Battalion, tying the teams’ best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal at two games each.
James Hardie and Zander Veccia had one goal and one assist apiece for seventh-place Mississauga, which got 22 saves from goaltender Ryerson Leenders before a crowd of 2,625.
Anthony Romani scored for second-place North Bay, while goaltender Dom DiVincentiis was brilliant in defeat, stopping 28 of 31 shots before Veccia scored into an empty net.
Game 5 is scheduled at Memorial Gardens at 7 p.m. Friday. The sixth game will be played at Mississauga at 2 p.m. Sunday.
After the teams split the first two games at North Bay, the Battalion won 5-2 Tuesday night at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
With the teams tied 1-1, MacDonell cashed a Porter Martone rebound into the open left side. Kasper Larsen had the other assist on MacDonell’s third goal of the series.
Hardie gave the Steelheads breathing room at 17:06, taking a pass from Veccia deep on the right wing and skating atop the circle to unleash a screened drive. Luke Misa also assisted on Hardie’s fourth goal, one which seemed to surprise even him.
With DiVincentiis gone for a sixth attacker, Veccia won a race to the end boards for the puck and went counterclockwise behind the net to tuck the disc home at 19:51, one second after a Larsen delay-of-game penalty expired.
A holding penalty to Larsen at 13:49 of the second period led to the teams splitting two goals. MacDonell dashed away from a faceoff to Leenders’ right at the start of the North Bay power play, escaping Kyle McDonald and beating Matvey Petrov and Ty Nelson to the crease at 13:57.
Romani replied at 15:10, snapping home a Petrov feed from deep on the right wing. Nelson also assisted on Romani’s third goal.
DiVincentiis was stellar in the period, foiling Hardie coming from the back door in the fourth minute and getting a shoulder on a surefire setup for Misa at the right side of the crease at the end of a Mississauga power play in the ninth.
Nikita Tarasevich failed to make solid contact with the puck in front of Leenders 23 seconds after the tying goal, and DiVincentiis stopped Hardie on a looping attack off the left side in the 18th minute.
Mississauga enjoyed an 8-4 edge in first-period shots, with the Troops failing to register a drive on Leenders during a four-minute power play that followed a double minor to Adam Zidlicky at 15:20.
Liam Arnsby fired wide left of the Mississauga net at the one-minute mark, and DiVincentiis denied MacDonell on a pointblank chance in the fourth before snagging a labeled Lucas Karmiris blast at 8:28. DiVincentiis saved his best stop of the frame for a right-pad robbery of Jack Van Volsen at close range in the 11th minute.
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BATTALION BULLETS: Petrov is the Battalion’s nominee for the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player. Voted on by sportswriters and broadcasters, the league’s leading individual trophy honours Albert (Red) Tilson, a member of the Oshawa Generals who was killed in action in Europe during the Second World War … The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 41-54 in road playoff dates and 0-1 in a neutral-site game. The Troops are 39-36 in playoff games since relocating from Brampton in 2013, including 18-20 on enemy ice. The franchise is 14-23 in the fourth game of a playoff series, including 4-3 on the road as North Bay … In 17 career playoff games, Petrov has two goals and 14 assists for 16 points, tied with Kyle Jackson and Alex Henriksson for 24th place in franchise history. Petrov’s 14 assists are tied with Evgeny Grachev, Tyler Harrison and Brett McKenzie for ninth all-time. Both Petrov and Nelson have eight power-play assists, tied with Grachev and Kamil Kreps for eighth in franchise annals … The Battalion went 1-for-4 on the power play. Mississauga was 0-for-1 … The Battalion scratched Tnias Mathurin, Jacob Therrien, Brayden Turley, Brett Bouchard and Alexander Lukin, who left Game 3 with an upper-body injury … Mississauga, which dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen, scratched Brice Cooke, Ryan Struthers and Quinn Binnie.
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