2018 local hockey recap: IceDogs come of age; Falcons regroup
Niagara IceDogs goaltender Stephen Dhillon has been solid between the pipes for the OHL club this season. Photo by: OHL IMAGES.
It was another exciting season of junior hockey across all levels in Niagara in 2018.
Looking back, it was a year that saw the Niagara IceDogs come of age as legitimate contenders for an Ontario Hockey League championship, while the St. Catharines Falcons and Niagara Falls Canucks asserted themselves at the junior B level as the top local teams in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Let’s start with the IceDogs.
The region’s junior A club finished the 2017/18 season with respectable 35-23-7-2-3 record and 80 points, good enough for second place in the Central Division.
And they did so with rookie coach Billy Burke behind the bench. Burke was appointed head coach when incumbent Dave Bell left the team in August to take a job in the American Hockey League.
Burke, who was assisted by Kris Sparre and Ted Dent, then watched on as the IceDogs came of age in the playoffs.
Niagara quickly dispatched of the Oshawa Generals in the first round of the playoffs in five games before facing off against the highly-favoured Hamilton Bulldogs in the semifinals.
The Bulldogs prevailed in five games, but Hamilton’s first two wins were in overtime and no game had more than a two-goal differential.
The Bulldogs then went on to upset the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the OHL final and advance to the Memorial Cup.
Individually, the Akil Thomas and Ben Jones arrived as legitimate OHL stars while Kirill Maksimov made IceDogs general manager Joey Burke look like a genius with a 34-goal campaign in his first full season in Niagara after being acquired from Saginaw. Sam Miletic, picked up at the trade deadline from London of all places, instantly became a fan favourite in St. Catharines with 20 goals and 38 points after the trade.
In the midst of the playoffs, the OHL held its Priority Selection where the IceDogs had to shift gears and think about the future for a few hours before battling the Bulldogs later that night.
The IceDogs came away thrilled they landed mobile defenceman Lleyton Moore in the first round. Niagara also added a couple of local players later in the draft, selecting Grimsby’s Ethan Sims in the fifth round and Michael Craig of St. Catharines in the ninth round. Sims is playing for the Falcons this season while Craig is a member of the Thorold Blackhawks.
Among the other local players selected were Spencer Smith to Guelph, Dalton McBride to Kitchener, Robbie Stewart to Sudbury, Matteo Costantini to Hamilton and Owen Holmes to Flint.
At the junior B level, the Falcons were doing their best to commemorate the organization’s 50th anniversary with another trip to the Sutherland Cup finals.
St. Catharines coach/general manager Frank Girhiny pulled out all the stops, bringing in former OHL players Carson Edwardson and Andrew Sommerville, along with St. Louis Blues draft pick Liam Dunda, near the trade deadline in an all-out effort to win.
The club finished with 38 wins and an .800 winning percentage — good enough for third overall in the GOJHL — but then ran into the powerful Caledonia Corvairs in the Golden Horseshoe final where they were swept in four games.
The Corvairs, who were looking for their fourth Sutherland Cup championship in five years, then came up short themselves, dropping four straight to Listowel in the final.
The Corvairs a couple of months later shocked the GOJHL when they announced they were taking a one-year leave of absence with expectations to return to the GOJHL for the 2019-20 season.
Caledonia coach Mike Bullard said there were a couple of reasons for the decision.
“We were getting tired of the OHA (Ontario Hockey Association),” he said. “Every year there’s a different Caledonia rule. It was like pick on the powerhouses all the time. If it wasn’t us, it was St. Catharines, and if it wasn’t St. Catharines, it was London.
“It seems to be the same crap all the time. They kept changing the rules and changing the rules.”
The OHA in the last couple of years instituted more stringent rules on how many 20-year-olds a team could carry on their roster.
As well, Bullard said the ownership group of the team has other interests they are pursing away from hockey, including construction of a clubhouse for Monthill Golf and Country Club south of Caledonia.
“We talked to the owner and we had a really good run and we decided to back down a notch here and regroup for a year and start over again,” he said. “We have a lot of projects in place. We’re building a 60,000-square foot golf course and it’s a lot of work right now. I told the guys it would be nice to take a year off and regroup.”
The 2018/19 Golden Horseshoe season did indeed start without the Corvairs and the Canucks took full advantage, winning their first 12 games of the season while featuring a dominating forward line of Ben Evans, Justin Kyle and Mitch Mendonca.
The Falcons, meanwhile, had a tough start to their season while they figured out their roster before settling in and going on an amazing 25-game run with at least one point. The team was buoyed by the arrival of winger Christian Girhiny of the Erie Otters who has 21 goals and 52 points in 18 games since joining the team.
The Falcons (.862) and Canucks (.850) have the top winning percentages in the GOJHL at the Christmas break and seem headed to a showdown for the Golden Horseshoe championship.
Back in the OHL, the IceDogs came into training camp with no question of their intentions for the 2018/19 season.
“We want to win everything. We want to win our division, the conference, the league and the Memorial Cup,” Burke said. “We aren’t shy to say that’s the goal. We know it’s a very high goal — there are 60 teams in the CHL and we’re not the only team that has their sights set at the top — it’s going to be a ton of work but I think everyone is prepared for it and excited for it.”
For the most part, the IceDogs have lived up to the hype with a 20-7-5-1 record for 45 points, one point up on the Sudbury Wolves for first place in the Central Division at the Christmas break.
Overall, the IceDogs are fourth overall in the league in points trailing the Ottawa 67’s (54), London Knights (49) and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (47).
The IceDogs left no doubt they intend to be legitimate contenders for an OHL title when they swung a massive blockbuster trade with the Kingston Frontenacs which landed them sniper Jason Robertson and defenceman Jacob Paquette.
The cost was high, promising defenceman Billy Constantinou and a whopping 11 draft picks spread out over the next several years.
With both the IceDogs and Falcons off to strong starts, it’s not inconceivable both could be contending for championships in the spring of 2019.
Stay tuned.
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