BRAMPTON, Ont. – One of the reasons the Brampton Battalion’s Stan Butler didn’t reach for an offensively minded addition at the Ontario Hockey League’s trade deadline earlier this month was the return of Ian Watters from a three-month injury layoff.

Butler, the club’s director of hockey operations and head coach, has likened the return of Watters, who scored 20 goals in a full season a year ago, to a free trade.

Watters is back, and the Battalion, with a won-lost-extended record of 12-1-5 in its most recent 18 games starting Dec. 4, is on a roll.

“We gel well together as a group both on and off the ice,” said left winger Watters, who scored a shorthanded second-period goal which stood as the winner in a 2-1 verdict Sunday over the Sudbury Wolves.

“Coming together as a group is a huge thing in hockey. Everyone likes each other here, and it seems to be working well.”

The Battalion, which has won three of its last four games, is 26-11-9 for 61 points atop the Central Division, two points behind the Ottawa 67’s in the Eastern Conference.

“We just stuck with the game plan, played well and competed hard,” said Butler, who has been summoned to a league hearing Wednesday to review his Sunday lambasting of referee Mike Marley for what were considered to be one-sided penalty calls.

The Troops, who relied on their top-ranked penalty-killing units to blank the Wolves during their six power-play chances, including a two-man advantage lasting 32 seconds midway in the third period, rebounded after losing 5-4 via shootout Friday night to the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.

Said Butler: “Friday night in Mississauga we scored four goals and we didn’t win. Any time you score four goals, you should win, so on Sunday we knew we had to get back to playing the way we need to play in order to be successful.”

Added Watters: “We played a little bit smarter, put pucks low, forechecked hard and played well defensively. Mississauga was a tough game to lose, and we didn’t want to lose another one like that.” 

Watters, a 20-year-old resident of Pickering, Ont., who plays on a line with centre Sam Carrick and right winger Barclay Goodrow, pointed to chemistry and a positive attitude as the team's biggest assets.

“We’re playing well together as a group, and everyone is staying positive. It’s been important for us. We all help each other out and, if someone gets down, someone gets them back up.”

An eighth-round pick in the 2008 OHL Priority Selection, Watters missed 30 games after severing three tendons in his right wrist in a 4-3 victory via shootout Sept. 30 over the host Sarnia Sting.

He has scored 10 goals and added nine assists for 19 points in 16 games, including a career-high seven-game points streak which started in his return to the lineup Dec. 29 in a 4-3 loss by shootout to the host Barrie Colts. Watters had five goals and six assists for 11 points during the streak.

“I worked really hard when I was hurt, so I’m in the shape I want to be in, and my linemates have been helping me out a lot. They’ve been giving me the puck, I’ve been giving it back, and we seem to be working well together right now.”

Watters, who forms the Troops’ overage trio with Brett Mackie and Mitchell Porowski, also left wingers, stressed the importance of a strong work ethic. 

“You have to work hard every game and in practice. You need to have good practices, because if you have good practices you’re going to have good games, so we need to keep working hard and staying positive.”