IceDogs wrap up regular season
The Niagara IceDogs finished the Ontario Hockey League regular season with a 29-31-4-4 record and take on the Barrie Colts in the first round of the playoffs beginning Thursday. Photo: OHL IMAGES.
The Niagara IceDogs put a bow on their most volatile season since relocating to Niagara Saturday with an 8-1 loss to the Barrie Colts.
The outcome was irrelevant — the IceDogs were already locked in to meet the Colts in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs beginning Thursday — and dropped the team’s final record to 29-31-4-4.
The final record is certainly respectable and good enough to earn the team their first playoff appearance since the 2018/19 season, but a long way from the start of the season that saw the IceDogs win nine of their first 11 games and head into the Christmas break at 22-9-1-1.
“It was a tale of two different seasons, obviously,” IceDogs coach Ben Boudreau said. “And obviously, the first half, I think we over-accomplished, over-achieved. But we were motivated and we had the mentality that we were doing anything that we can do to win.
“And in the second half, you could see that we didn’t make any changes or trades. It’s the same personnel, but our mentality sort of changed and obviously that resulted in a lot of losses.”
The team also lost starting goaltender Owen Flores for about a month and backup Charlie Robertson for the rest of the season around the same time in February and the results were predictable — a 13-game losing streak and a fall from the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
“Losing your number No. 1 goalie, which I believe is undoubtedly our team MVP, really hurt us,” Boudreau said. “And so, the second half, nothing went right and it was really tough. That’s when we lost players and didn’t have enough gas in the tank to keep up with the teams that loaded up at the trade deadline here.”
Still, after winning just 12 games two years ago and only 17 last season, Boudreau feels 29 wins is a huge step in the right direction.
“If you would have asked me that question last year, if you only won two of your last 20 but still make the playoffs with what you went through last year, I would have said yes,” he said. “Baby steps for us. You’re going in the right direction even though you started way down at the bottom and that’s what you have to do is just keep progressing and next year we’ll set out sights a little bit higher with our expectations.
“These players are going to continue to grow and continue to get better and use these experiences you know along the road to get better. It’s a painful process that we’re going through now to hopefully pay dividends in the future but right now I think we’re exactly where we should be because this is exactly who we are right now. We’re a young team that’s learning on the go.”
Ryan Roobroeck and Mathieu Paris got the night off Saturday while Charlie Hotles and Rafek Dianov dressed. Andrew Wycisk (day-to-day) also sat in favour of Darcy Dewachter.
Matthew Humphries started in goal, giving Flores a night off.
Ethan Czata netted the lone Niagara goal.
Friday night in their home regular season finale, the IceDogs dropped a 5-4 decision to the North Bay Battalion,
Ryan Roobroeck, Noah VanVliet, Kevin He and Ivan Galiyanov scored.
Roobroeck led the team in scoring with 41-46-87 followed by Kevin He 36-39-75, Andrei Loshko 34-35-70, Ethan Czata 21-34-55 and Jack Brauti 8-38-46.
Rookie Braidy Wassilyn collected eight goals and set a franchise record for rookie assists with 31.
Mathieu Paris (plus-12) and Alex Assadourian (plus-6) were the lone plus players.
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