IceDogs take it on the chin
It was a weekend the Niagara IceDogs would just as soon forget.
The IceDogs dropped a 9-1 decision to the Kitchener Rangers Saturday night at home, just 24 hours after a 7-3 loss to the Sudbury Wolves at the Meridian Centre.
Toss in Niagara went scoreless in 11 opportunities with the man advantage, that they have now dropped four in a row and are 2-5-1-2 in their last 10, and it’s clear the IceDogs are headed in the wrong direction with the playoffs coming up quickly.
“We’re at a loss for words,” IceDogs head coach Ben Boudreau said. “I loved the way we played as a team to be honest with you through 40 minutes. I mean a five-goal period is never going to be good but I really thought our effort level and compete was there through the first 40 and then they got that fifth one early in the third and that’s the straw that kind of broke the camel’s back and you could kind of see our give-up in the third.
“I really appreciated the effort level tonight but that team was bigger and better and faster and stronger. They executed a lot better than us.”
Rookie goaltender Matthew Humphries made his first home start of the season and permitted all nine goals on 25 shots, including one just 19 seconds into the game.
“It’s tough,” Boudreau said. “You have a goaltender making his debut and you don’t want go to the media and curse him. He had four really good periods but it was a tough game.”
Boudreau defended his power play which is operating at 23.7 per cent — Branford leads the league at 27.7 per cent — despite their recent struggles.
“It hasn’t been an issue,” Boudreau said. “We were eight-for-14 on the power play in the last week-and-a-half. We were phenomenal on the power play. It’s the best it’s been in two-and-a-half seasons when we were averaging almost one every five goals but there wasn’t anything positive about tonight. The power play wasn’t good. We didn’t score goals, we gave up a lot. It’s a really bad recipe.”
The IceDogs, who sit eighth overall in the Ontario Hockey League at 27-17-3-3, have 18 games remaining.
“We don’t have any choice but to come back here on Monday and go to work,” Boudreau said. “We can give up or keep finding a way. One thing we know right now is that we’re deficient with our defensive game. We’re trying everything we can right now. That’s a tough one, especially doing this interview and listening to another team (down the hall) clinch the playoffs. There’s no question about it.
“We’ve been on the right side of things and right now we’re on the wrong side of things. It’s tough right now. So like I said, you take it on the chin and try to wake up tomorrow and see what you can control.”
Boudreau said it’s time for the leaders on the team to step up.
“It’s extremely important. We need everybody and you can’t turn on each other,” he said. “If we turn on each other, that’s going to be tough, but you know, it hasn’t been good. We’ve been getting games that haven’t been close and it feels like after Christmas we’ve really been going downhill. So it’s on the players in that room to decide whether they can turn it around.”
Ice cubes: Charlie Robertson, Alex Assadourian, Mathieu Paris and Nick Frasca did not dress for the IceDogs . . . Luke Ellinas, Matheas Stark, Andrew MacNiel, Evan Headrick and Jack LaBrash were scratched for the Rangers . . . Former St. Catharines Falcon Matthew Hlacar scored for the Rangers . . . Ryan Roobroeck (35), Kevin He (27), Sean Doherty (12) scored Friday in the loss to Sudbury.
STATS PACK
Rangers 9 IceDogs 1
Niagara’s Ivan Galiyanov and Kitchener’s Andrew Vermeulen.
Niagara IceDogs: Ivan Galiyanov (7).
Kitchener Rangers: Andrew Vermeulen 2 (10,11); Cameron Arquette 2 (4,5); Luca Romano (19); Jack Pridham (17); Chris Grisolia (9); Matthew Hlacar (5); Christian Humphreys (4).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Jackson Parsons (24), by Kitchener on Matthew Humphries (25); Power plays: Niagara 0/6, Kitchener 1/3; Penalty minutes: Niagara 10, Kitchener 18.
Attendance: 4,412.
Next up: The IceDogs head to Erie Wednesday, Brantford Friday and are back home next Sunday afternoon to face the Bulldogs at 2 p.m.
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