IceDogs battle hard in loss to Bulldogs
Rookie Ryan Roobroeck scored as the Niagara IceDogs dropped a 3-2 decision at Brantford Wednesday. Photo by: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs continue their uphill battle.
An inordinate slew of injuries combined with illness once again left the IceDogs with a short bench as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Brantford Bulldogs in Ontario Hockey League action Wednesday.
The IceDogs were without an astounding nine regulars — Daniil Sobolev, Connor Federkow, Gavin Bryant, Artem Frolov, Michael Podolioukh, Brody Crane, Mathieu Paris, Andrew Wycisk and Andrew Vermeulen.
Eric He, Darcy Dewachter and Rafek Dianov were called up to fill out the roster for Niagara, which dressed just 10 forwards and five defencemen, three under the limit.
“Extremely proud,” IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau said. “It would be easy for any team to pack it in, but we’re resilient. We kept going and were inches away from pulling it off.
Brantford opened the scoring early in the first period when Calvin Crombie netted his third of the season. The IceDogs quickly responded when Dianov, who was selected in the 13th round (243) overall in the 2023 OHL draft, scored in his OHL debut.
Nick Lardis then went to work for the Bulldogs, scoring twice in the second period as Brantford took a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Lardis appeared to complete the hat-trick and give Brantford a 4-1 lead in the third but the goal was correctly disallowed after replays showed the play was off side.
Rookie Ryan Roobroeck then moved Niagara to within one with his 10th of the season at the 16:38 mark of the third.
With two minutes to play, the IceDogs pulled goaltender Owen Flores to attempt to tie the game with a two-man advantage but came up short.
“We have great kids and a great group,” Boudreau added. “Great leadership. We’re lucky with that aspect because if we didn’t and these losses kept mounting, we wouldn’t look forward to being together but we genuinely love each other so it makes going through this process a lot easier.”
The IceDogs have now dropped six in a row and 11 of their last 12 games to fall to 4-15-4-1.
Niagara visits Kitchener Friday before hosting the Peterborough Petes Sunday at 2 p.m.
Boudreau reports two forwards are day to day while a few are still week to week.
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