Get the popcorn ready, and put it in an extra-large bowl.

The North Bay-Oshawa series has undercard status alongside That One With Connor McDavid in the OHL's final four, but is a decidedly heavyweight bout with behemoths such as Montreal Canadiens draft pick Michael McCarron, at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, gracing the Generals, while 6-foot-5, 230-pound pound defenceman Kyle Woods mans the Battalion blueline. There's a distinct possibility for a longer and more grueling series than a year ago, when North Bay broke a scoreless deadlock late in the opener and went on to a sweep.

"It wasn't by accident that we went out and got bigger, " says Generals coach D.J. Smith, whose team hosts games 1 and 2 on Friday and Sunday. "We felt manhandled in that series. Someone gave me a stat the other day that the four teams remaining are also the four biggest teams in our league. Big teams win in the playoffs. Getting Michael McCarron down the middle has given us a huge advantage, especially against smaller centres, not that that's [going to be] the case against North Bay."



Each team has a dozen players who are 19 or 20 years old, including both Battalion goalie Jake Smith and the Generals' Ken Appleby, a North Bay native. Oshawa's Michael Dal Colle (21 points in 10 playoff games) is the most compelling individual talent in the series, but he's facing a Battalion team that didn't allow Calgary Flames call-up Sam Bennett to score a single goal during a first-round sweep of Kingston.

"They're big and strong and neither team embellishes much," Battalion coach Stan Butler says. "You got to earn everything."

(1) Oshawa Generals (51-11-6, 108 points) vs. (3) North Bay Battalion (37-20-11, 85 points)

Season series: Oshawa 4-0-0-0 (only one meeting in 2015). Final Dynamic Dozen rankings (regular season): Generals sixth, Battalion 28th. Post-trade deadline records: Generals 29-8-4, Battalion 26-11-4. Prediction: Generals in 7.

Why the Generals should win: While Oshawa coach D.J. Smith expects "low-scoring games, NHL playoff style" and that would seem to be in North Bay's wheelhouse, the Gens might possess enough of a spark to mark the difference in those tight games. Dal Colle was dialled in during the IceDogs series and can be a very good catalyst. Moreover, Oshawa believes its entire group — here one thinks of core players such as Dal Colle, centre Cole Cassels and defencemen Josh Brown, Chris Carlisle and Will Petschenig — have internalized what got away from them last season.

Oshawa also got worked in each of the two series. Last season, its second opponent was beat-up Peterborough Petes squad.

"Our chemistry this year is a lot tighter," Brown says. "Even the new guys we brought in [McCarron, left wing Brent Pedersen and overage defenceman Dakota Mermis], we're tight with them.

"We were also challenged a lot more in those first two rounds. I'm almost glad we lost one game in each."

Six Generals have reached double figures in playoff scoring and Cassels, McCarron and wing Tobias Lindberg stand a reasonable chance of shaking free from North Bay's checkers.

Oshwa might need to take a win out of Memorial Gardens at some point. So far in the Battalion's two seasons up north, few teams have found a comfort zone in one of the OHL's loudest atmospheres. Appleby will be playing goal in Games 3 and 4 (and 6 if necessary) in his hometown, and he also got a taste of that during last spring's series.

"We went there last year, I don't think we expected how loud they were and how into the game we were," Brown says of North Bay. "I hope we got a good taste of that in Niagara when they were coming back. That crowd was one of the loudest I have ever heard."

How the Battalion could win: Butler notes "timely scoring" triggered last spring's Battalion sweep and that the rematch will turn "not so much preparation as who adjusts better as the series goes along."

North Bay's renown is for frustrating teams and exhausting their patience, which elite teams are better equipped to withstand. Oshawa appears quite cable of doing that, but the Battalion are handy up front with four drafted forwards, Mike Amadio, Ryan Kujawinski, Nick Moutrey and Nick Paul.

Other factors — Smith vs. Appleby in goal, one team being driven to distraction, one or both between Oshawa's second-ranked power play and North Bay's third regressing, and as always, injuries — could break in the Battalion's favour.

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