Former captain sinks IceDogs
Former Niagara IceDogs captain Gavin Bryant had two goals and an assist as the Peterborough Petes edged the IceDogs 4-3 in overtime Sunday afternoon in Peterborough. Photo: OHL IMAGES.
Gavin Bryant came back to haunt his old teammates in a dramatic way Sunday.
Bryant had two goals and an assist, including the winner in overtime, as the Peterborough Petes edged the Niagara IceDogs 4-3 in Ontario Hockey League action at Peterborough.
Bryant, who captained the IceDogs and was their leading scorer last season, was dealt to the Petes earlier this year without playing a game while he was recovering from double shoulder surgery in the off season.
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t that we didn’t want Gavin Bryant,” IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau said. “He is an unbelievable player. He’s an unbelievable human. He’s an unbelievable leader. We just had four overagers. We made a decision, we stick with it, and we ended up getting stung by a really good player.”
Bryant’s first goal came on the power play with Niagara up 3-1 late in the second period. Just over two minutes later Bryant set up Quinton Page to tie the game at 3-3.
“Tonight was a game where it wasn’t compete, it wasn’t systematic, but a lack of discipline,” Boudreau lamented. “Eight minors. I mean, they scored two goals as soon as the penalty kill expired. It might only say one on the power play, but technically it was three just as they expired. You keep giving them chance after chance and eventually they’re going to go in.
“I thought we had cruise control in that game at 3-1 with three minutes to go in the second. One undisciplined penalty got them right back into the game. And when you give a team with two wins an opportunity where they can smell (a win) the desperation comes out and they found a way to be more desperate than us to get their third.”
Boudreau quickly refuted the thought his club took the last-place Petes too lightly.
“We took them as serious as we possibly could,” he said. “When you look at our struggles, our losses, the blue collar teams that work us extremely hard are the ones that we have the most trouble with. Owen Sound, which is towards the bottom, they blew us up there and obviously Flint most recently and Peterborough is very, very hard working.”
The IceDogs, 15-9-1-1, have four wins and two overtime losses in their last 10 games.
“Our compete level hasn’t been good enough really in this 10-, 12-game segment where we’ve been losing a lot of games here recently,” Boudreau said. “Our compete level, our compete factor on 50/50s on the defensive side just isn’t good enough.”
Braidy Wassilyn had a strong game with a goal and two assists for the IceDogs while Matthew Virgilio and Kevin He also scored.
Owen Flores made 36 saves in a losing effort.
The IceDogs are home to Brampton Friday at 7 p.m. and Brantford Sunday at 2 p.m.
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