IceDogs falter late in Mississauga
Alec Leonard scored his first OHL goal Sunday as the Niagara IceDogs dropped a 4-1 decision at Mississauga. Photo by: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs, minus two of their top three scorers, dropped a 4-1 decision to the Mississauga Steelheads in Ontario Hockey League action Sunday afternoon in Mississauga.
The IceDogs, who last won Saturday, Oct. 23 when they topped the Steelheads 4-2, have dropped five in a row to fall to 4-8.
The IceDogs were missing leading scorer Danil Gushchin, suspended two games for a slew-foot penalty, and Jake Uberti, suspended three games for a check from behind.
“That played a little bit into it, but at the same time, I really thought we shot ourselves in the foot,” IceDogs coach Billy Burke said. “We got away from our game plan and were inconsistent with some things. We had two face-off plays back-to-back in the third, plays that we went over and talked about in the pre-scout before the game.
“It’s mental cramps like that which can be frustrating. It’s definitely a frustrating loss. I think we could have helped ourselves a lot more.”
Burke admitted that last two weeks have been challenging.
“We don’t want to be streaky, we don’t want to go on a hot streak and then go cold,” he said. “It’s been a bad two weeks. It’s been a little bit of an early season funk. We had a good first couple of weeks and then the league settled in and as that has happened we haven’t been able to regain our play.”
Burke said it will be more video and more teaching this week.
“We need to really focus on some individual video, keep meetings small. We don’t want to crush the guy’s confidence, but we need to play better and battle harder,” he said. “I think our team compete level could be raised a little bit and hopefully that will allow us to get back on track.”
The IceDogs grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period when rookie Alec Leonard scored his first OHL goal at the 19:15 mark.
Following a scoreless second period, the Steelheads tied the game early in the third when Chas Sharpe scored. Less than two minutes later Sharpe scored again to give Mississauga a 2-1 lead. Ty Collins, at the 11:41 mark, and Luca DelBelBelluz, into an empty net with under two minutes to play, rounded out the scoring.
The IceDogs were outshot by a wide margin at 45-22, including 18-6 in the final 20 minutes.
The IceDogs are home to Barrie Friday at Oshawa Saturday.
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