IceDogs bounce back
The Niagara IceDogs answered their first challenge of the season in convincing fashion, bouncing back with a solid effort to defeat the North Bay Battalion 7-5 Saturday night in St. Catharines.
The IceDogs, who had won their first four games of the 2024/25 Ontario Hockey League regular season, were coming off a 6-4 loss to the Owen Sound Attack Friday night in an effort head coach Ben Boudreau called disappointing.
Boudreau was singing a different tune Saturday following the victory which boosted Niagara’s record to 5-1.
“Everything that we did tonight was (as) a resilient group,” Boudreau said. “You can really tell that they were bought in.
“Last night wasn’t great, but we didn’t hold that over. We challenged them how they were going to respond. Are you gonna learn from your mistakes? Everybody was phenomenal, and that’s exactly what you want to see. Everything you could have written up and they executed it to a tee so it was great.”
The IceDogs finished last season with only 17 wins and did not record their fifth victory of the season until late November.
“When you look around, a lot of teams have had the same coaches and the same system and the same kind of culture and the same expectations,” Boudreau said. “We’re establishing that right now. We didn’t handle the adversity well, four goals in the second and we couldn’t come back. We issued them a challenge and I thought they rose to the challenge and that’s exactly what you’re hoping for.”
The IceDogs led 2-1 after one period and 5-3 after two. Each team scored twice in an entertaining, albeit somewhat sloppy final period.
Alex Assadourian had a particularly strong game with two goals and an assist while earning his 100th OHL point. The speedy forward already has four goals and seven points in six games after accumulating just eight goals and 27 points last year.
“It’s really tough to compare last year. There was a coaching change and anybody that had been here, it’s adjustment after adjustment every time you keep making changes. Now I think there’s a comfortability from a lot of players starting to set in,” Boudreau said. “Assadourian is an offensive guy who wants to focus on points but when you look at his stats, he was a minus player. We told him to focus on the five on five defensive habits that will lead to offence and he was plus-four tonight.”
A total of 12 IceDogs registered at least one point, including newcomer Matthew Virgillio, who netted his first goal as an IceDog after being acquired in the off season from Sault Ste. Marie.
“It was great to have a total and complete effort and see some guys get rewarded,” Boudreau said.
Charlie Robertson kicked out 43 shots to earn his first win in goal in his second start. Owen Flores, who started the first four games of the year, was sitting out his second game of a four-game suspension.
Ice cubes: Owen Flores (suspended), Gavin Bryant, Mathieu Paris and Nick Frasca did not dress for the IceDogs . . . Declan Gallivan, Ihnat Pazii, Anthony Romani and Tyson Rismond and Zach Wilson were scratched for North Bay . . . North Bay won four of six games last season against the IceDogs.
STATS PACK
IceDogs 7 Battalion 5
Niagara’s Alex Assadourian and North Bay’s Owen Van Steensel.
Niagara IceDogs: Andrei Loshko 2 (4, 5); Alex Assadourian 2 (2, 3); Max Crete (4); Matthew Virgillio (1); Ivan Galiyanov (1).
North Bay Battalion: Ethan Procyszyn (6); Jacob LeBlanc (3); Owen Van Steensel (1); Shamar Moses (1); Jacob Therrien (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Charlie Larocque (28), by North Bay on Charlie Robertson (48); Power plays: Niagara 1/5, North Bay 2/5; Penalty minutes: Niagara 19, North Bay 17.
Attendance: 3,010.
Next up: The IceDogs host Ottawa Thursday at 7 p.m. before heading to Kitchener Friday.
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