Dhillon getting it done
Stephen Dhillon is on a roll.
The veteran netminder has played some of his best hockey of the season in the last couple of weeks, helping the Niagara IceDogs to a four-game winning streak.
For his efforts, Dhillon was named the Ontario Hockey League Player of the Week for the week ending Oct. 28 after posting a 3-0-0-0 record, including one shutout for a goals-against-average of 0.97 and save percentage of .970.
“It’s a great honour. It’s the first time in my career I’ve been able to win that award,” Dhillon said. “It really reflects on how well the team did this weekend so I just hope we can build on that and move forward.”
Dhillon turned aside 97 shots last week which backstopped the IceDogs to a trio of victories to climb into first place in the Central Division standings with a 9-4-2-0 record. He earned his first shutout of the season last Wednesday making 28 saves to blank the Peterborough Petes, claiming first star honours in the 3-0 victory. Dhillon then won back-to-back games in Michigan to wrap up the weekend, including a 3-2 victory Saturday night in Saginaw where he made 36 saves plus two in the shootout to edge the Spirit, then Sunday afternoon in Flint, where his 33-save performance earned him third star honours in the 7-1 win over the Firebirds.
Dhillon said he’s not done anything different during the stretch.
“I never change my approach. My game didn’t change overnight,” he said. “We’ve always been working hard. I’ve just been getting a couple of bounces lately. If you look at the couple of posts in the Flint game and a couple in the Saginaw game, if you look at those and they go the other way, your numbers go from .970 to .870.
“Right now, we’re getting the bounces and you just have to ride that high and go as far you can with it.”
A 20-year-old Buffalo native, Dhillon is a five-year veteran of the IceDogs, who chose him in the third round of the 2014 OHL Priority Selection. He’s played in exactly 150 career OHL games, amassing 67 wins with a cumulative goals-against-average of 3.27 and save percentage of .907. This season, he carries a 2.59 goals-against-average and .921 save percentage through 11 games with both figures among the top five across the league.
Dhillon had a tough game in loss at Barrie earlier this month, but wasn’t about to point to that as a turning point.
“Barrie was one of those games where everything that could possibly went wrong,” he said. “It was an unfortunate game and one you would like to try again and redo. Unfortunately, you’re not going to have great games all the time and you just have to keep moving forward and take a couple of things and learn and implement them so you don’t make the same mistakes again.”
Dhillon is quick to give credit to his defence for the his success.
“Everyone is playing for contracts or to get drafted,” he said. “The better we do as a team helps each individual.
“We’re all playing for each other, but at the same time, you have to play for yourself. We all have our own agendas and those things need to be taken care of as well but when everyone is playing well together, it makes everyone look good.”
Dhillon has played in 11 games this season compared to five for Colton Incze. The two netminders have a strong working relationship, although both could be starters on many OHL teams.
“You never really think about that or worry about the other guy,” Dhillon said. “You’re worried about yourself and doing your own thing. It’s nice to have a little competition, but at the end of the day you just have to worry about yourself and do your job.”
The IceDogs are home to Mississauga Thursday and at Mississauga Friday.
“I think the whole team is very confident right now,” Dhillon said. “We have a big weekend against Mississauga and are feeling really good going into that.”
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