IceDogs lose game, goaltender
The Niagara IceDogs dropped a 5-4 decision to the Brantford Bulldogs at home Sunday afternoon and have now lost seven in a row. File Photo: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs dropped a 5-4 decision to the Brantford Bulldogs Sunday, but the defeat was overshadowed by the injury of goaltender Owen Flores.
Flores was removed from the game late in the second period with what appeared to be a right leg injury and did not return.
“We’re looking forward to getting some of our forward group back but now we’ve got to worry about our goaltending with Owen Flores being on the shelf,” IceDogs head coach Ben Boudreau said.
Boudreau was unable to provide an update Sunday night other than to indicate Flores will not play Monday at Brampton.
With backup Charlie Robertson out for the season after undergoing surgery and only rookie Matthew Humphries available, losing Flores for an extended period could be disastrous for the IceDogs.
“Yeah, you don’t want to think that,” Boudreau said. “You want to hope for the best and plan for the worst.”
Humphries will start Monday in Brampton, likely to be backed up by Finn Moffett of the Fort Erie Meteors or Hayden Jeffery of the St. Catharines Rankin Construction Falcons.
The loss was the seventh straight for the IceDogs who are 1-5-1-3 in their last 10 and have dropped to 27-19-3-4 and fifth place in the Eastern Conference of the Ontario Hockey League.
“We have 15 games left in the season. You want to try to make sure everybody’s healthy here enough for the playoffs and obviously hang on long enough to make the playoffs, so we’re in a tough spot right now,” Boudreau said. “We’re losing a lot of hockey games. If it wasn’t for our terrific start here, I think we’d be a little bit more under pressure to make the playoffs. Thankfully, that 7-0-1 streak before Christmas has allowed us to stay afloat during this losing streak.”
The IceDogs, coming off an ugly 10-1 loss Friday in Brantford, trailed 5-2 heading into third before scoring a pair of late goals before time ran out of on their comeback attempt.
“You have to try to find the positive,” Boudreau said. “We obviously know that we’re not winning hockey games right now. You still got a game tomorrow, so the last thing you want to do is beat a dead horse. You have to find something to try to motivate these guys. Going down 5-2, we showed resilience. We didn’t give up. You can’t control the outcome, but you can control your effort.
“These kids didn’t give up. That’s something to be proud of and hold your head up high.”
Boudreau said the mood in the room is what would be expected under the circumstances.
“It reminds me of some of these feelings that we had last year where we get scored on early and the score would get blown wide open kind of thing,” he said. “We’ve been a great team when we’ve been healthy and when we haven’t we’ve stockpiled a bunch of losses here so I think we’re turning the corner and we should be healthy here pretty soon.”
The IceDogs were without Alex Assadourian, Mathieu Paris and Ryan Roobroeck Sunday.
Niagara takes on the Steelheads Monday in a possible first-round matchup.
“We’re going to have a very good Brampton hockey team that’s underneath us in the standings but we know they’re firing on all horsepower right now so we need to try to salvage something,” Boudreau said. “It’ll be a big game for us at the end of the weekend.”
Ice cubes: Charlie Robertson, Alex Assadourian, Mathieu Paris and Ryan Roobroeck did not dress for the IceDogs . . . Pelham Panthers goaltender Logan Snyder acted as back-up goaltender for the Bulldogs . . . A total of 4,369 tickets were sold but poor weather held the actual crowd to about 2,200.
STATS PACK
Bulldogs 5 IceDogs 4
Niagara’s Mike Levin and Hamilton’s Cole Brown.
Niagara IceDogs: Andrei Loshko 2 (30,31); Mike Levin (11); Noah Van Vliet (6).
Hamilton Bulldogs: Cole Brown 2 (25, 26); Nick Lardis (56); Jake O’Brien (28); Noah Nelson (5).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Ryerson Leenders (22), by Niagara on Owen Flores/Matthew Humphries (37); Power plays: Niagara 0/2, Hamilton 0/1; Penalty minutes: Niagara 6, Hamilton 8.
Attendance: 4,369 (tickets sold)
Next up: The IceDogs head to Brampton Monday, Ottawa Friday and Kingston Saturday.
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