IceDogs fall just short in Barrie
Ivan Galiyanov scored twice in a losing effort as the Niagara IceDogs dropped a 7-5 decision in OHL playoff action at Barrie Monday. Photo: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs shook off the most adversity they have faced all season to turn in their grittiest effort of the year.
With the club under league and team-imposed disciplinary measures as the result of an off-ice incident involving the entire team last week, the IceDogs rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third period to tie the game at 5-5, only to fall 7-5 to the Barrie Colts Monday in Barrie.
The Colts now lead the Ontario Hockey League best-of-seven quarter-final playoff series 2-0.
The series shifts to Niagara for Games 3 and 4 Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
“I cannot comment at all on any off-ice situation,” IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau said.
The sanctions required all players in the lineup to sit for one period in the series which caused Boudreau to become inventive when putting his lineup together.
Rookie goaltender Finn Moffett of the Fort Erie Meteors of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League was pegged to start as Owen Flores took a seat for the opening 20 minutes.
Moffett turned back 13 of 16 shots and looked solid as the Colts took a 3-1 lead after one period. As well as Flores, Niagara’s top line of Kevin He, Alex Assadourian and Ryan Roobroeck sat the opening 20 minutes.
Boudreau said there was no point dwelling on an obviously difficult situation.
“It’s obviously unique, there’s no question about it,” he said. “But we have one of two choices. We can embrace it, accept it, and try to put a plan in action as far as coaches, or we can argue and give up and I think just based on the results of the game you can tell we decided to do the latter.
“It was something that we tried to use as motivation and to be honest it almost worked. I think that’s why the heartbreak is so heavy right now because we worked so hard to get to that point and then just to get that one goal against with a minute to go is a huge, huge dagger for us but I’m extremely proud of the resiliency from the guys.”
Boudreau admitted he has never faced a situation even remotely close to this one in his coaching career.
“There’s always a first time for everything. To be honest, we would have looked so great if we could have found a way to use that and come out on top. But you know, we had three different lineups for three different periods. And like we said, it falls back on us as coaches if we’re not prepared for the situation.
“So I thought we did our best to embrace it and try to use it as motivation and we almost found a way to make it work.”
Boudreau said all players have sat the required period so it will be business at usual Tuesday.
“We didn’t have to do it (that way) but the City of St. Catharines, especially the fans, have been so loyal for so long. All I ever heard from the moment that we walked through the doors was they missed playoff hockey and how excited they were.
“You can see the excitement and I think it would be a disservice, not only to the fans and the businesses and the people that are continuing to support us, if we give them anything less than our full attention. So if we were gonna choose to be shorthanded in a game we wanted to get rid of it all so there’s no distractions going home.”
Barrie took control of the game in the second, scoring twice to take a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes.
The IceDogs then rallied with four goals in a span of 11 minutes to tie the game at 5-5.
The Colts won it when Anthony Romani scored at the 18:50 mark of the third to complete the hat-trick.
Beau Jelsma added two for the Colts while Emil Hemming and Grayson Tiller also scored.
Ivan Galiyanov, who was knocked out of the game early on a vicious hit near centre, returned to scored twice while Mathieu Paris, Andrei Loshko and Matthew Virgilio added one each.
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