North Bay Battalion

North Bay Battalion
City North Bay, Ontario
League Ontario Hockey League
Conference Eastern
Division Central
Founded December 3, 1996 (1996-12-03)
Home arena North Bay Memorial Gardens
Colours Olive, yellow, black and white
                   
General manager Stan Butler
Head coach Stan Butler
Affiliate(s) Powassan Voodoos (2014–present) (NOJHL)
Franchise history
1998–2013 Brampton Battalion
2013–present North Bay Battalion

The North Bay Battalion is a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League based in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. The franchise was founded as the Brampton Battalion on December 3, 1996, and began play in 1998. Due to consistently poor attendance, the team relocated to North Bay prior to the 2013–14 OHL season.

History

Early Years, 1998-2013

The Brampton Battalion's inaugural season began in 1998-99, and the team struggled, winning only 8 of 68 games. However, it would be one of only two seasons (the other being 2001-02) in which the Battalion would miss the playoffs. The fifteen season tenure in Brampton saw the Battalion finish with a .484 win percentage in 1020 regular season games and win four Central Division Championships and one Eastern Conference Championship.

Relocation

During the summer of 2012 rumours of the Battalion franchise relocating began to swirl as their lease agreement with the Powerade Centre was nearing an end. Attendance that was never healthy on a regular basis to begin with was declining in Brampton. Combined with an unfavorable lease in Brampton, owner Scott Abbott had no choice but to look for other options as the 2012-13 season got under way. On Monday, November 5, 2012 following a meeting with city council in North Bay, Ontario an agreement in principle to move the Battalion to North Bay for the 2013-14 season was agreed upon. Just nine days later fans in North Bay had already bought over 2,000 season tickets as per the conditions of the agreement. The Battalion would play out of the North Bay Memorial Gardens which will start seeing renovations on and off the ice begin in early 2013. Franchise owner Scott Abbott indicated that the team will still be named Battalion in North Bay, mentioning the city's strong military history.

Championships

The North Bay Battalion have won one division title and one conference championship in its first season in North Bay.

Emms Trophy
Central Division Champions

Bobby Orr Trophy Eastern Conference Champions

Uniforms and logos

The Battalion's uniform is primarily an army-like shade of olive green. The shoulders feature black bars, with white outlining, this is then further outlined in black. Evenly between the shoulder and elbow lie three military-style chevrons, connoting rank (here, sergeant) completing armed forces theme.

The logo itself, featuring their mascot, Sarge, gritting his teeth is also army olive green, a mix of yellow and beige, white, fleshish pinky-orange, black, and red. The name Battalion, emblazoned on their uniform is pure red, and is created in a way that it looks three-dimensional.

Uniform Colours: Olive Green, Yellow, Black and White
Logo Design: "A militant with an army hat with Battalion under the militant."

Arena

The North Bay Battalion play out of the North Bay Memorial Gardens. Built in 1955, it is best known as the home of the North Bay Centennials, which called the Gardens home from 1982 until 2002, after which they moved to Saginaw, Michigan and became the Saginaw Spirit. Most recently, it has served as the home of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League's North Bay Trappers, which called the Memorial Gardens home immediately after the Cents left in 2002 and played in tell 2014, as well as the Nipissing University Lakers hockey team playing in Canadian Interuniversity Sport as a member of the Ontario University Athletics conference.

With the Battalion's arrival and subsequent 15-year lease, the Gardens went under a $12 million renovation; the seating capacity has increased to 4,246, the ice surface has been reconfigured to new OHL standards, 10 private boxes has been added and a new 2-level team dressing room was built.

Capacity = 4,246
Ice Size = 200' x 85'


Roster

Goaltenders
Number Player Glove Acquired NHL Draft Place of birth
1 Canada Jake Smith L Brampton Battalion 2011 Undrafted Oakville, Ontario
30 Canada Jake Kment L Brampton Battalion 2012 Undrafted Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Defensemen
Number Player Shoots Acquired NHL Draft Place of birth
3 Canada Kyle Wood R Brampton Battalion 2012 COL 2014 Waterloo, Ontario
4 United States Cam Dineen L North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 Toms River, New Jersey
5 Canada Jacob Ramalho L North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 Ottawa, Ontario
6 Canada Zach Shankar L North Bay Battalion 2013 Undrafted Prescott, Ontario
7 United States Miles Liberati L Trade LON 2013 VAN 2013 Cheswick, Pennsylvania
8 Canada Riley Bruce R North Bay Battalion 2013 CAL 2015 Carp, Ontario
22 Canada Brady Lyle R North Bay Battalion 2015 Eligible in 2017 North Bay, Ontario
25 Canada Mark Shoemaker R North Bay Battalion 2013 free agent Mississauga, Ontario
Forwards
Number Player Shoots Acquired NHL Draft Place of birth
10 Canada Brett Hargrave R Trade OS 2015 Undrafted North Bay, Ontario
11 Canada Mike Baird L North Bay Battalion 2013 Undrafted Cayuga, Ontario
12 Canada Brett McKenzie L North Bay Battalion 2013 Undrafted Vars, Ontario
14 Canada Zachary Poirier R North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 Mountain, Ontario
15 Canada David Sherman L North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 Mississauga, Ontario
16 Canada Kyle Potts L North Bay Battalion 2015 Eligible in 2017 Oakville, Ontario
17 Canada Justin Brazeau R North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 New Liskeard, Ontario
18 Canada Mike Amadio R Brampton Battalion 2012 LA 2014 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
20 Canada Jacob Ball L North Bay Battalion 2015 Eligible in 2017 Peterborough, Ontario
21 Germany Max Kislinger R CHL Import Draft 2015 Eligible in 2017 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
26 Canada Mathew Santos R Signed as a Free Agent Undrafted Etobicoke, Ontario
27 United States Kyle Moore R North Bay Battalion 2014 Eligible in 2016 Indian Trail, North Carolina

NHL Alumni

Broadcasting

Country 600CKAT is the radio broadcaster for the team. Matthew Sookram is the Play by Play man and Bob Coles does Color Commentary duties, while they provide scores and updates from around the league.Tristan Fitzpatrick hosts the road game shows alongside the excellent and knowledgeable Tommy Wong aka Tommy 705 and Liam Berti [1]

Canadore College's Television and Video Production program second year students operate and generate content for the video board located above centre ice.

TVCogeco broadcasts all home games, and all away games that are televised. Previous Nipissing Lakers commentators Ranjan Rupal and Greg Theberge call all home games.

Season-by-season results

Regular season

Legend: OTL = Overtime loss, SL = Shootout loss

Season Games Won Lost OTL SL Points Pct % Goals
For 		Goals
Against 		Standing
2013–14 683824 4 2 820.6032201891st Central
2014–15 683720 6 5 850.6252371952nd Central
2015–16 683523 6 4 800.5882402272nd Central

Playoffs

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://battalionhockey.com/article/ckat-to-provide-radio-coverage

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 15, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.