Editing Brampton Battalion (section)

===2008–09: Run to the finals===

After 3 straight years of being knocked out of the playoffs by the Colts the Battalion built up a roster to make a deep run in 2008/2009. Brampton got off to a slow 2–6 start but with the return of Cody Hodgson and the addition of [[Evgeny Grachev]] the Troops went on a run of 16 straight wins setting a new franchise record for straight wins. The streak was the longest that any team achieved during the 08/09 regular season. Brampton also set a record of 12 straight home wins from October to December (another franchise record). During December Battalion forwards Cody Hodgson and Evgeny Grachev represented their respective countries (Canada and Russia) at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa. Grachev helped team Russia to a Bronze medal while Hodgson set a tournament high 16 points to lead Canada to its 5th straight gold medal. After the tournament Brampton added more to their roster acquiring all star goaltender [[Thomas McCollum]] (who had also played for his home country of U.S.A. at the World Juniors), defenceman Josh Day, and forwards, [[Anthony Peluso]], Matt Kang and Andrew Merrett. Brampton would enjoyed another long 12-game winning streak in January and February. At the end of the regular season Brampton would finish with a franchise best record of 47–19–1–1 to win the central division for the third time in four years.
In the first round of the playoffs the Battalion would sweep the Peterborough Petes four straight.  The second round saw the only time in franchise history the Battalion would face their Peel Region rivals in Mississauga.  The Troops won the first two games before the Majors won the next two to tie the series.  The Battalion however came back with another two wins, taking game six in Mississauga by a 3–2 score to advance to the conference finals for the first time in team history.  In the Eastern final the Battalion would win game one on the road in Belleville before hammering the Bulls in game two by a 7–2 score.  Belleville would win game three on home ice before Brampton took a 4–3 come from behind win at the Bunker in game four.  Game five in Belleville became the longest game in Battalion history as with a birth to the finals on the line the Troops took the Bulls to double overtime tied 2–2 before Nick Palmieri would score at 18:44 of the second overtime to send the series back to Brampton for game six.  The Troops took a 2–0 lead early in the sixth game before the Bulls stormed ahead 3–2 in the second period.  The Troops then exploded in the third with five goals to win the game 7–4 to win their first ever conference championship.  In the OHL Finals Brampton would go up against the regular season champion Windsor Spitfires.  Windsor pounded Brampton in game one by a score of 10–1.  Windsor then took a 4–1 lead early in game two before holding on for a 5–3 win.  The Battalion would finally win in game three on the road beating the Spits by a 4–2 score. However Windsor answered with another victory in Brampton this time 4–1. With the series on the line in game 5 on the road the Battalion were down 1–0 for most of the game before scoring with three minutes left in the third period to send the game to overtime.  However the Spits would get an early powerplay and a goal by Taylor Hall ended the Battalion's season and give the Windsor Spitfires their first OHL Championship in 21 years.  They would go on to win the Memorial Cup in Rimouski. After it was all over Battalion import Evgeny Grachev was named OHL rookie of the year. Matt Duchene collected Scholastic Player of the Year honors, while Cody Hodgson named the OHL's most Sportsmanlike player and Most Outstanding Player. Hodgson then collected CHL Player Of The Year honors, the first Battalion player to ever receive the award. Finally in June Matt Duchene was chosen 3rd overall in the NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche.