IceDogs blank Battalion
Andrew Bruder of the Niagara IceDogs. Photo by Terry Wilson / OHL Images.
The Niagara IceDogs managed to turn the page on an subpar effort Saturday to defeat the North Bay Battalion 6-0 Tuesday night at the North Bay Memorial Gardens.
The IceDogs lead the best-of-seven Ontario Hockey League Eastern Conference quarter-final series 2-1 and can take a stranglehold on the series with a win in Game 4 Thursday in North Bay. The series returns to Niagara Friday.
“We had a good couple days of hard practice and video and the guys were very focused,” IceDogs head coach Billy Burke said. “We really wanted to play to our identity. We didn’t want to flip everything upside down just because we lost one game. We wanted to play with speed and urgency and I thought we did that.”
The IceDogs, who dropped Game 2 at home 5-2, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Andrew Bruder at the 3:38 mark and Philip Tomasino about 10 minutes later. The IceDogs dominated the period, outshooting the Battalion 22-9.
Niagara continued their solid play in the second and increased their lead to 3-0 when Ivan Lodnia netted his first of the post-season just under five minutes in. Niagara again held an edge in shots, this time 13-7.
Niagara then added three more in the third on goals by Jack Studnicka, Oliver Castleman and Tomasino.
The IceDogs managed just four goals in the first two games of the series before finally solving North Bay goalie Christian Propp, who was peppered with 51 shots.
“We’ve scored so many goals this year I don’t think it was in the back of their minds but it was in the back of my mind a little bit,” Burke said. “It’s great to see them rally together. It’s a very talented group and if they keep playing hard together, eventually we’re going to get some goals, especially with the shot count we continue to get.”
The IceDogs would love to follow that effort up with another similar game Thursday.
“We’re up 2-1 and we should be up 2-1,” Burke said. “We’re only half way through. We need to stay focused. We haven’t accomplished anything.”
Stephen Dhillon made 20 saves for his second shutout of the series.
Niagara went 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
Injured forwards Kirill Maksimov and Kyen Sopa were once again out of the lineup for the IceDogs. Sopa took the pre-game warm-up but did not dress. Maksimov is not with the team and Burke indicated it is very unlikely he will be able to play in the series.
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