IceDogs drop second straight
The Niagara IceDogs have been on a roller coaster ride of late.
The IceDogs are off to one of their best starts in recent memory, already surpassing their win total of two years ago, but have come back to earth a bit, going just 4-5 following a torrid 9-2 start.
The IceDogs fell 6-3 to the Brantford Bulldogs Sunday afternoon at home to drop to 13-7, the first time they have lost back-to-back games this season. In its seven defeats, Niagara has been outscored by a whopping 38-19 count.
“I think the mathematics work out pretty good there,” Niagara coach Ben Boudreau said. “We lose, we give up a lot of goals. We win, we don’t,” he said. “It’s an understanding where it’s got to be defence first. Through 40 minutes, we played a hell of a defensive game and only gave up one five-on-five goal, a bad break against the fourth line.”
Indeed, the IceDogs carried a 3-2 lead into the third period following an outstanding middle frame, but ran into penalty trouble in the final 20 minutes and permitted four goals, two on the power-play.
“In that third period, too many power plays and their skill took over,” Boudreau said. “We scored three, which should be enough.”
The IceDogs were called for six minors, the Bulldogs two. That did not sit well with Boudreau, who was tossed late in the game.
“I think it’s a fully loaded question,” Boudreau said when asked about his team’s discipline. “I didn’t think we got the same calls that they got. I thought a lot of the calls that went against us were very soft, and as hard as we were working, I thought we worked hard enough to generate more. So I thought there was a disparity in what was the standard, which is probably where there is a lot of the frustration. Three-for-five (power play goals permitted/chances), and I mean three calls in the third period (for them) versus zero.”
The officials assigned to the game were Hillary Brennan and Lacey Senuk. It was the first time in Canadian Hockey League history a game was officiated by two females.
“It’s really frustrating, especially when you get a tandem that cannot communicate that effectively. So without calling out any specifics on the referees, I didn’t think it was the same standard from one team to the other. And that was a sense of frustration for us,” Boudreau said.
The IceDogs were missing captain Kevin He, along with Jack Brauti, Alex Assadourian and Mathieu Paris, while rookie forward Max Crete was banged up and did not finish the game. He was suspended for two games for his part in a fracas in an 8-5 loss to Guelph Friday that saw him come to the aid of teammate Andrei Loshko, who was being pummelled by the Storm’s Grant Spada.
“You’ve got guys that started on the fourth line that are now playing on the first line. You’ve got guys on the third line that are full-time second-line guys. And you’ve got guys who are out of the lineup and trying to fill in. I mean everybody is trying to play up,” Boudreau said.
“So, how do you fast track your development to turn a third line guy into a second line guy, a fourth line guy into a first line guy? And the easy answer or the simple answer is that you can’t. You just got to put up with the pain and wait for those guys to come back unless you’ve got players waiting in the wind or trades, which we don’t right now.”
Boudreau was happy with the effort, if not the execution.
“I’m very proud of our group, playing all the way to the end,” he said.
Ice cubes: Charlie Robertson, Jack Brauti, Alex Assadourian, Kevin He (suspended) and Mathieu Paris did not dress for the IceDogs . . . Adam Jiricek, Noah Nelson, Daniel Chen, Marek Vanacker and Ben Bujold were scratched for the Bulldogs . . . The IceDogs came into the game 16th overall in penalty killing . . . He (17), Ryan Roobroeck (14), Andrei Loshko (10), Ethan Czata (5) and Ivan Galiyanov (3) scored Friday in Guelph.
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 6 IceDogs 3
Niagara’s Braidy Wassilyn and Brantford’s Nick Lardis.
Niagara IceDogs: Ryan Roobroeck (15); Ethan Czata (6); Mike Levin (3).
Brantford Bulldogs: Nick Lardis 3 (18,19,20); Patrick Thomas (7); Adien O’Donnell (2); Noah Roberts (2).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on David Egorov (24), by Brantford on Owen Flores (37); Power plays: Niagara 0/1, Brantford 3/5; Penalty minutes: Niagara 12, Brantford 4.
Attendance: 3,648.
Next up: The IceDogs are back home Thursday to face Sault Ste. Marie at 7 p.m.
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