The North Bay Battalion lost 5-4 to Kingston this afternoon (Sunday) ending the Troops season.

The Battalion led 3-2 after two periods but gave up three straight goals to Kingston within the first six minutes of the third.

Zach Shankar’s goal with just under four minutes to go sparked a flurry of Battalion activity in the Kingston zone, but the clock ran out on the Troops and their season.

Kyle Potts, Justin Brazeau and Zach Poirier scored the first three goals for North Bay.

Battalion coach Stan Butler says his team didn’t play a full 60 minutes and it’s a familiar refrain.

“We pushed hard, but the reality is, the story all year, our push hasn’t been where it needs to be in order to be successful,” he said.

Butler says they lost five games to teams that had fewer points than them, but that’s not all.

“We blew a lot of games early in the year that we needed to win.  Sometimes in life, you get out of life what you put in and pretty much this year, we just didn’t get the job done,” he added.

This is the first time the Battalion has missed the postseason in four years in North Bay, and only the third time in franchise history.

The game was the last in the OHL for Battalion overagers Steve Harland, Brett Hargrave and Brent Moran.

North Bay will have the third overall selection in the OHL Priority Selection coming up on April 8th.

The Troops will also select 7th overall in the CHL Import Draft.

Filed under: North Bay Battalion