Storm meet Battalion for Robertson Cup
By Aaron Bell
Scott Abbott is a visionary but it’s hard to imagine that even he would have envisioned this kind of conclusion to his first season in North Bay.
Abbott is an inventor and an entrepreneur and is the only owner that the franchise has even known. After 15 years in the GTA suburb of Brampton, Abbott brought the OHL back to North Bay last fall. Six months later, his squad is getting ready to face-off against the Guelph Storm in the Rogers OHL Championship Series for the Robertson Cup.
It’s the first time the city has been in the OHL finals since the Centennials won the Robertson Cup 20 years ago and the community has rallied behind the team in a big way.
“It’s a Cinderella story almost, winning in our first year here in North Bay,” overage forward Matt MacLeod told the North Bay Nugget. “Everyone’s really buying into the system. We’re rolling four lines, everyone’s chipping in and the crowd itself – the combination of everything really adds up.”
The Battalion played in the OHL final in 2009 when they lost in five games to the Windsor Spitfires. They may face a similar battle this time around when they face the Storm, who finished first overall and knocked off the powerhouse London Knights and Erie Otters on their way to the OHL finals.
Despite being the clear underdogs, the Battalion will draw on a season full of adversity when the series gets underway on Thursday in Guelph. They opened the season with nine straight games on the road while waiting for the Memorial Gardens renovations to be completed, then adjusted to their new home on the fly and dealt with a rash of injuries early in the season. So far in the playoffs, the Battalion battled back from a 3-1 deficit to the Niagara IceDogs and swept aside the conference best Oshawa Generals in the semi-finals to win the Bobby Orr Trophy.
They are clearly ready to face another challenge in the Storm.
“I think this team’s faced everything we can,” MacLeod said. “I think we’re definitely going to be prepared for Guelph.”
If the Battalion may not have expected to find themselves in the OHL finals when the season began, the Storm have been aiming for the finals since the puck dropped on the season in September. They paced the field through most of the season – especially after they padded their line-up by adding Kerby Rychel and Nick Ebert from the Spitfires before Christmas.
The Storm made a lot of noise in the regular season but saved their best for the playoffs. They disposed of the Plymouth Whalers in five games in the first round and then eliminated the two-time defending champion and MasterCard Memorial Cup host London Knights in five games in the second round. The Erie Otters were right on their heels throughout the regular season and were expected to prove to be a tougher match-up but the Storm responded with another five game series win to capture the Wayne Gretzky Trophy.
Now, they set their sights on the Battalion in their first OHL Championship appearance since 2004 when they won the Robertson Cup in four straight over the Mississauga IceDogs.
Despite finishing with 14 more wins and 26 more points than the Battalion in the regular season, the Storm refuse to look past the Battalion.
“We’re not taking the North Bay Battalion lightly,” Storm coach Scott Walker told the Guelph Mercury. “I know Stan Butler will have his team ready.”
The Storm boast loads of firepower up front. Zack Mitchell and Rychel are tied for the OHL playoff scoring lead with 23 points each and Scott Kosmachuk, Jason Dickinson and Robby Fabbri have all posted top-10 numbers. Meanwhile, the only player on the Battalion roster in that company is captain Barclay Goodrow, who is leading the way with 11 goals and 21 points.
Walker said that he has a lot of respect for what the Battalion have done this season but also sees that his team has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success.
“Regardless of what North Bay had to do – they’re a great team, well coached and all those things,” Walker said. “But let’s talk about what our team had to do. I think it’s been understated how hard our side was. It’s one of the things that I think all year was the story that never got brought up: how tough a division ours was in all of the CHL.”
The series continues in Guelph on Friday for Game 2 on Sportsnet Friday Night Hockey, before moving to North Bay for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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