Stan ButlerBRAMPTON, Ont. – The Brampton Battalion’s fortunes will be decided by the team’s performance against Eastern Conference opponents over the final quarter of the Ontario Hockey League season.
The Battalion, with a won-lost-extended record of 18-21-12 for 48 points through the first three-quarters of the schedule, is 10-3-4 in 17 games against Western Conference foes, with two more on tap this weekend. The Troops visit the London Knights at 7 p.m. Saturday and entertain the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at 2 p.m. Sunday.
After that, the Battalion has eight consecutive games within its own conference, in which the team’s record is 8-18-8.
A 4-2 home-ice victory Thursday night over the Erie Otters kept the Battalion in the fight in a crowded race for the final five conference playoff berths. Nine of the Battalion’s games in its final quarter involve the Kingston Frontenacs, Peterborough Petes, Oshawa Generals, Sudbury Wolves and Niagara IceDogs.
The Troops play Niagara three times, Kingston and Sudbury twice each and have one game left against each of Peterborough and Oshawa.
“We’ve played well against the better teams but not as well against teams that are even with us or below us in the standings,” coach Stan Butler said Friday.
“Niagara is an honest, hardworking team that has a huge home-ice advantage. Peterborough has been getting great goaltending from Jason Missiaen, and Kingston is a team that can be scary if they get it going in the right direction. They have a good defence and some guys who can score.”
The return of centre Cody Hodgson gives the Troops optimism that they can find some offence to complement a notably stingy defence. Hodgson, who had two assists against Erie in his season debut, helped create several scoring opportunities in a game in which the Battalion recorded 51 shots.
“Getting Cody back almost makes it feel like it’s trade deadline time around here and you’re picking up a new player,” said defenceman Ken Peroff. “He hasn’t played all season and then comes in and has an immediate impact in his first game. It’s more than what he does on the ice. He really boosts our morale off the ice.”
Battalion captain Hodgson was sidelined with a back injury, and his availability likely will be on a game-to-game basis.
“We need to monitor Cody daily,” said Butler. “Right now he’s feeling pretty good, but with backs you never know.”
The Battalion has allowed 139 goals, third-fewest in the conference, but has scored a league-low 123. Peroff said he hopes the offensive performance against Erie heralds things to come.
“I thought we played really well last night. We pumped a lot of shots at their net. You had defencemen jumping into the rush, and I’ve never seen a game here where defencemen had so many chances to contribute offensively. It seemed like we had the puck in their end the whole night. It was a nice change from playing defensive-zone coverage all game and just waiting for a chance.”
Butler said he’ll continue to preach consistency at both ends of the ice.
“The better you are in your own end means you get to play at the other end more. We need to play hard every night and be sharper around the other team’s net. If guys who aren’t great goal scorers do little things like get pucks on the net or go to the net and wait for rebounds, they can improve their chances to score goals.”
Peroff said the Battalion, which has seen 25 one-goal decisions, can expect plenty of close games down the stretch.
“We’ve played those kinds of games all season. That has to help us the rest of the way and into the playoffs. We don’t win any easy games. We don’t win by more than one or two goals. I think that’ll make us a mentally tougher team.”
The game at London can be seen live in Brampton on Rogers Cable 10 and in Caledon and Orangeville on Rogers Cable 63.
