Black Friday for IceDogs
What a difference a day makes.
Just 24 hours after a solid 5-3 victory over the Guelph Storm, the Niagara IceDogs laid an egg at home Friday.
The IceDogs fell behind 2-0 after one period and never recovered, dropping an ugly 8-2 decision to the Flint Firebirds in Ontario Hockey League action in St. Catharines.
The IceDogs fell to 15-9-0-1 with the loss.
“Nine regulation losses, I think six have been blowouts,” IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau said. “It’s a bad trend right now that we give up on ourselves. And I didn’t want to be negative and down their throats or anything, I wanted to see if they solved. It was a real disappointing reaction, especially from our older guys, a couple rookies. I mean some guys did not have it and then they just accepted the defeat, which is a major area of concern.”
Boudreau said the IceDogs simply didn’t come to play.
“(In) 60 minutes, we got out-worked, out-classed, out-played, out-battled,” he said. “I mean, you can’t teach work ethic. They were just willing to play. You win one game big last weekend against the Soo and you take the next day off. You win a nice game last weekend, you take the next day off.
“Consistency right now is a major issue, showing up to the rink to play the same way. It’s tough. That was a big physical team and we made them look like the No. 1 team in the league out there.”
Boudreau wanted no part of the thought the team might be banged up after playing the night before.
“You have to be ready every single day and we talked about it,” he said. “We stressed how we responded after last week’s big win. We talked about exactly what we need to do as far as our compete, but you can’t teach will and that team out-willed us at the end of the day. So it’s really, really tough to watch and then it’s really tough to watch our team accept defeat.”
Owen Flores made his 14th straight start in goal and permitted five goals on 29 shots through 40 periods before being given the rest of the night off in favour of Charlie Robertson
“Owen Flores does not deserve any type of ill will,” Boudreau said. “He did everything for us. He covered up a lot of mistakes. When it’s 5-0 in there, we could let him battle but at the same time his workload, he’s just been getting worked. We want him ready for Peterborough and at the same time Charlie hasn’t played in over a month since Sarnia so that’s the perfect time to get him some work.”
Down 5-1 after two, the IceDogs mailed in the final 20 minutes.
“You really hope that at 5-1 that the team comes out and battles defensively but we gave up another three in the third,” Boudreau said. “It was selfish tendencies, thinking offence, offence and some me, me, me hockey. Even though it’s 6-1, getting blown out, I want some points and they left Charlie to hang out to dry which is a really disappointing mentality.”
Grimsby native Nate Day picked up the win in goal for the Firebirds, kicking out 17 shots and earning an assist.
Ice cubes: Alex Assadourian, Mathiew Paris, Charlie Hotles, Nick Frasca and Darcy Dewatcher (warm-up only) did not dress for the IceDogs . . . The Firebirds feature six NHL picks, including Day (Edmonton) . . . Former IceDogs Urban Podrekar and Artem Frolov were in the lineup for Flint . . . Blake Arrowsmith earned his first point for the IceDogs with an assist in the third period.
STATS PACK
Firebirds 8 IceDogs 2
Niagara’s Blake Arrowsmith and Flint’s Matthew Mania.
Niagara IceDogs: Ryan Roobroeck (19); Max Crete (8).
Flint Firebirds: Matthew Wang 2 (7,8); Kaden Pitre (9); Blake Smith (7); Connor Clattenburg (6); Jeremy Martin (4); Matthew Mania (2); Alex Kostov (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Nathan Day (37), by Flint on Owen Flores/Charlie Robertson (19); Power plays: Niagara 1/7, Flint 2/6; Penalty minutes: Niagara 16, Flint 18.
Attendance: 2,744.
Next up: The IceDogs head to Peterborough Sunday at 2 p.m. and are back home next Friday to face the Brampton Steelheads.
With files from the Armchair GM’s Sports Network.
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