He’s played a strong, physical game all season.
On Saturday night, Brady Martin’s strength and physicality was on display for the Soo Greyhounds.
It was ultimately one play turned the tides as the Greyhounds faced the North Bay Battalion at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
The second-year forward threw a hit in the North Bay zone on Battalion forward Nolan Laird with 20 seconds to go in regulation time of a game that was tied at two.
Laird was injured and the play was whistled dead as action moved to the other end of the ice.
The play was reviewed by referees Joshua Houselander and Alex Schmidt with a major penalty called to kick start the review.
Martin was eventually penalized, given a major penalty for interference on the play and the Battalion got the game-winning goal off the stick of Ethan Procyszyn with eight seconds to go in regulation time to pick up a 3-2 win over the Greyhounds at the GFL Memorial Gardens.
Greyhounds coach John Dean said he reviewed the hit on the bench in the moments after it happened while it was being reviewed and was confident that “it was a clean hit.”
“It’s a horrible call,” Dean also said. “It’s a great, clean hit by Brady. I’m proud of him for finishing his hits.”
Dean added that he was “very confused by the call.”
“They didn’t make a call (before reviewing the play),” Dean added.
Dean said he didn’t receive an explanation on what was getting reviewed, adding that he believed the fact that Laird was injured was what led to the review.
Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen said he quickly reviewed the hit on the tablet at the North Bay bench after it happened and thought “it warranted the referees to go to take a look” and added that he was concerned for Laird, who left the game and went to the dressing room with the help of the North Bay trainer after the hit.
Dean also questioned having local referees do the game when flights were arriving in the Sault from Toronto as well as departing.
“I imagine that there was a weather issue,” Dean said, adding that Greyhounds goalie coach Mark Visentin flew out of the Sault earlier in the day Saturday.
Asked if he was concerned about further discipline for being critical of the referees, Dean replied “at some point I have to defend my players.”
“It’s my responsibility to defend our players,” Dean added. “Those guys go to bat for me, they go to bat for each other, I have to make sure I go to bat for them as well.”
While not outright saying the referees cost the Greyhounds the game, Dean did say “I thought they were fine until one call.”
Asked about Laird’s condition following the game, Oulahen said he didn’t know the severity of the injury, just that the forward was with the Greyhounds team doctors.
After going through a scoreless opening period, the teams nearly pulled off the feat in the second period before North Bay opened the scoring in the final minute of the frame.
On a delayed penalty, Lirim Amidovski beat Greyhounds goaltender Landon Miller with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle on a cross-ice pass from Jacob LeBlanc with 38 seconds to go in the frame.
The Battalion then made it a 2-0 game at 1:58 of the third period when Ethan Procyszyn beat Miller on a rebound in tight after LeBlanc’s initial shot from the right point was stopped.
The Greyhounds pulled to within a goal 2:12 later as Andrew Gibson beat North Bay goaltender Mike McIvor stick side from near the top of the left circle to make it a 2-1 game.
Martin tied the game with a power play goal at 10:27 as he beat McIvor on a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle off a pass from Justin Cloutier.
On the winner, Procyszyn deflected a point shot from Wyatt Kennedy in close past Miller with 8.8 seconds to go in the game.
Miller stopped 24 shots for the Greyhounds.
Offensively for the Battalion, in addition to the two-goal night from Procyszyn, LeBlanc had a pair of assists.
McIvor made 29 saves in the victory.
“He’s been one of, if not the best player on our team most nights and that was the case tonight,” Oulahen said. “
The teams were slated to play Friday night, but the game was postponed due to the snow that hit the Sault area Thursday night into Friday. The game has yet to be rescheduled at this point.
The Greyhounds are slated to hit the road for their next game when they face the Saginaw Spirit on Wednesday night in Saginaw in the opening game of a three-game road trip.
With the loss, the Greyhounds fall to 12-13-0-0 on the season.
North Bay improves to 11-11-2-0 with the victory.
Both teams were minus some key players in Saturday’s contest.
For the Greyhounds, goaltender Charlie Schenkel, defenceman Spencer Evans, and forwards Noel Nordh and Christopher Brown remain out due to injury.
For the Battalion, forwards Anthony Romani and Andrew LeBlanc were out.