IceDogs split weekend home set
Ryan Roobroeck scored in each game as the Niagara IceDogs split a pair of home games this weekend. Photo: OHL IMAGES.
The Barrie Colts started quickly and finished strong to defeat the Niagara IceDogs 5-1 in a battle of two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference of the Ontario Hockey League Sunday afternoon in St. Catharines.
IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau tipped his cap to the Colts, who loaded up at the trade deadline.
“It was a master class on what a premier team in a conference should look like,” Boudreau said. “We respect them so much. We talked about them. We listened to their post game speech after losing five games — I don’t know how that team lost five games — but that was the best team we’ve seen all year.
“I mean they had punch, they had power, they had execution, they had smell, they had grit and at the end of the day, we just couldn’t hold the flame to them right from the drop of the puck. They wanted it more at the end of the day.”
Barrie grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Anthony Romani and Evan Hemming before Ryan Roobroeck got the IceDogs on the board with his 30th of the season late the second.
Hemming, Beau Jelsma and Riley Patterson scored in a span of less than two minutes to put the game out of reach in the third.
Owen Flores saw 40 shots in goal for Niagara.
The IceDogs were without an entire forward line with Alex Assadourian, Mathieu Paris and Mike Levin all out of the lineup as well as defenceman Andrew Wycisk.
“Anytime you take out four 19-year-old guys and you use youth as a replacement you’re going lack experience and you’re going to lack confidence,” Boudreau said. “It provided an opportunity these last two games and hopefully the next few as well for guys to step up. Unfortunately I don’t think anybody really seized that opportunity. I mean a lot of our young forwards didn’t really have an impact on the positive side. It was more negative so I think that was disappointing. When you get provided an opportunity, you want somebody to step up and take it.”
Boudreau made it clear the IceDogs simply must be better.
“If we used that game as a barometer of what a playoff team should be like, we’d be swept in the first round with that type of effort,” he said. “So these are all valuable experiences, but it seems like that team is poised ready to go on a deep playoff run where we still got a lot of things to figure out within our group.”
Saturday night, the IceDogs rode a 43-save effort from Flores to defeat the Brampton Battalion 3-1 before 4,153 fans in St. Catharines. Roobroeck paced Niagara with a goal and two assists while Noah Van Vliet and Ivan Galiyanov also scored.
The IceDogs are at Brantford Wednesday and Erie Friday before returning home to host the Otters next Sunday at 2 p.m.
The IceDogs still have 25 remaining this season, including three more versus the Colts as well as games versus London, Kitchener and four versus Erie.
“There’s no easy opponent. You know Wednesday is not going to be easy, Friday is not going to be easy, Sunday is not going to be easy.
“We have to be ready to compete and these are habits we need to instill in our guys. And it’s great when you win and when you lose, I think your problems are magnified a little bit more. And so as far as us, our 50-50, our compete level, it needs to be raised. And I think we’re feeling the impact of missing those four guys in our lineup.”
With files from the Armchair GM’s Sports Network.
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