Northern OHL teams ready for second round of playoffs

Two northern OHL teams remain in playoff chase. The North Bay Battalion face the Brantford Bulldogs Wednesday, while the Soo Greyhounds face Kitchener Friday.

The second round of the OHL playoffs begins Wednesday night with two northern Ontario teams still battling it out on the ice: the Soo Greyhounds and the North Bay Battalion.

After an emotional series victory 4-2 over the Peterborough Petes, the Troops are set for a tough matchup against the Brantford Bulldogs.

“It’s tough. It’s competitive. It’s tight and tight checking,” forward Cam Warren told reporters Tuesday morning before practice.

“The atmosphere in the buildings is unbelievable.”

The Battalion faced a tremendous amount of adversity against the Petes, which head coach Ryan Oulahen said is healthy.

“It starts with a plan and then the players got to go out and execute it,” Oulahen said.

“There’s tinkering from game to game because, you know, they’re trying to change things up.”

Expect a hard series

The Battalion’s challenge is to contain Brantford’s powerful offence.

“It’ll be a hard series,” Warren said.

“That’s a great team over there. I’m just going to do the best I can and the best we can to try and be successful.”

“It’s the cliche stuff, but it’s blocking shots at the right time. It’s winning our 50/50 puck battles,” Oulahen added.

“It’s having the puck as much as we can in their zone. There are so many fundamental things that we’re going to have to stress in this series.”

To find success, he said the team will have to be disciplined and goaltending will have to continue to be their backbone.

Jack Lisson stood on his head against the Petes and was named OHL goalie of the week.

“Within our room, we know what we can do as a team. So we definitely are holding ourselves accountable,” Lisson said.

“One minute you’re sitting on the bench for, you know, a couple hours at a time and the next thing you know, you’re playing overtime for a big win there on home ice.”

The Battalion’s series begins Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Brantford.

Meanwhile, the Greyhounds have to wait until Friday for their first game.

That series starts in Kitchener against the top-seeded Western Conference Rangers. The Soo beat two-time defending champion London Knights in five games in their first-round series.