The Troy Mann era for the Kingston Frontenacs kicked off Friday night as they hosted their division rivals the Oshawa Generals. The two teams traded goals throughout the evening but in the end, it was the Frontenacs outlasting the Generals by a score of 4-3.
Kingston scored three of their four goals with the man advantage but also gave up two power-play goals against Oshawa.
The Frontenacs played in front of one of the bigger and livelier Leon’s Centre crowds so far this season.
Kingston was first to score just under 13 minutes into the second period, Matthew Soto and Jacob Battaglia cut in on a 2-on-1 with Soto’s shot getting stopped but Battaglia was there to bury the rebound to score his fifth of the season.
The lead was short-lived, as 2 minutes later the Generals would strike on the powerplay. Beckett Sennecke found Dylan Roobereck in front of the net who then flipped it over the shoulder of Mason Vaccari to tie the game.
The teams would head into the locker room for the first intermission tied at a goal a piece with Oshawa holding a 10-7 lead in shots.
It took just under seven and a half minutes into the second period for the Frontenacs to break the tie. Paul Ludwiski intercepted an Oshawa pass then took it on a breakaway and beat Jacob Oster for his third of the season to put Kingston up 2-1.
It would remain a 2-1 game until the 18th minute of the second, when Matthew Buckley let go of a one-time shot from the top of the left faceoff circle to tie the game at two heading into the second intermission, with shots in the period tied at 9.
In the third, after a Maleek McGowan fight that saw Oshawa’s Johnathon Pylypuik penalized for instigating, Jacob Battaglia would score his second of the game off his own rebound for his sixth of the season.
But seconds later Oshawa would claw right back, defenceman Ben Danford pinched on the play taking a cross-ice feed and putting it past Vaccari to tie things up at 3.
The game would stay tied until the 16:11 mark of the third, with the Frontenacs on the power play it was Linus Hemstrom taking a feed in front of the net to put Kingston up 4-3.
Oshawa would press late in the period but weren’t able to get one past Vaccari.
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