The North Bay Battalion have beaten the Oshawa Generals 8-1 at home to push their OHL Eastern Conference Championship series to a Game 7.
Battalion Head Coach Ryan Oulahen told the media after the game that the team was ready for the match-up.
“You have that feeling as a coach. The puck dropped and we were ready,” he said.
Oulahen repeated the word “relentless” throughout the press conference.
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North Bay scored four unanswered goals in the first period and goaltender Mike McIvor made more than 30 saves in the Battalion win.
“Backs are against the wall. We're energized and ready to go. I was preaching the whole period there,” said Oulahen.
“It's we had to get through that period, though. You know, I've talked about the last 5 minutes of the first period being a little bit of a hiccup for us. I think getting through that, we were a confident team.”
Seven different players scored for the Troop throughout the game -- with left-winger Owen Van Steensel scoring two goals and two assists.
“Every game we play at home, these fans are special," said Van Steensel, in a post-game press conference.
"We want to bring everything we have for them and obviously we're doing it for the guys in the room -- but it's important for the city.”
The Troop was playing in front of a sold-out crowd at Memorial Gardens, which has a capacity of 4,246.
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Oshawa had taken a 3-0 series lead before North Bay staved off elimination in three straight games to tie the series at three a piece.
A winner-take-all all Game 7 will be held at Oshawa's Tribute Communities Centre at 7:05 p.m. on Monday.
“This is where you're fortunate to have a lot of guys in the room that have played in multiple game sevens and a lot of guys in that room that were there last year,” said Oulahen.
The head coach said the team had been talking about the game on May 8, 2023 that eliminated the Battalion last season.
“I've thought about that night every single day since today. To think that, you know, especially the way we were down in the series and what we've gone through in the playoffs, we get to redeem ourselves or we get a chance to tomorrow night.”
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The series winner will face the London Knights for the Ontario Hockey League Championship. London won their Western Conference Championship series on Sunday against the Saginaw Spirit.
With files from CTVNorthernOntario.ca journalist Eric Taschner
Correction
An earlier version of the article indicated that the series winner would play the London Knights for the Memorial Cup in error.
