Michaud fires three as IceDogs edge Battalion
Daniel Michaud is quickly becoming a favourite of Niagara IceDogs interim coach Jeff Angelidis.
The 19-year-old centre is a strong two-way player who takes his defensive responsibilities very seriously, something Angelidis insists on.
“One thing I’ve talked to him about is being a Swiss Army knife,” Angelidis said. “He kills penalties and plays our power play. I’m a big fan of big centremen down the middle of the ice. I gravitated to him quickly when I got here.”
Michaud added offence to his game Saturday, firing his first OHL hat trick, as the IceDoge edged the North Bay Battalion 6-5 in a sloppy, wild and entertaining game before a season-high crowd of 4,274 fans at Meridian Centre.
“There was a prime example of somebody who was responsible on the right side of the puck and he finds a way to put the puck in the net,” Angelidis said. “I come back to the Hockey Gods. He played the right way tonight and I’m thrilled for him to get three.”
Michaud, who had two goals in his first 17 games, was all smiles afterwards.
“It’s good to get the two points and good to help out my team,” he said. “We’re starting to get some chemistry and it worked out tonight.”
Michaud is proud of his efforts on the other side of the puck.
“That’s most important for me,” he said. “I play a two-way game and defence comes first and obviously offence came tonight.”
The win comes on the heels of Friday’s victory over Barrie and improves Niagara’s record to 6-12-3 following a five-game losing streak and the dismissal of head coach Daniel Fitzgerald.
“It’s been unbelievable. Obviously, we had some circumstances in the lockeroom and stuff so to come out this weekend and get four points, we’re going to keep rolling from here,” Michaud said.
Angelidis was thrilled with the victory, if not the execution.
“Four-point weekends are huge in any league, any weekend,” he said. “Not crazy about tonight’s game, to be honest. Again, we deviated from our path, got away from our team identity. Can’t explain the Hockey Gods thing but we got some bounces our way and were able to capture the two points.”
Angelidis feels the IceDogs need to tighten up in their own end.
“I addressed the turnovers after the first period. We had a whole fistful after the first 10 minutes of the first period. I was frustrated with that from the get-go. We were up 2-0 after one but I was not crazy about our first period either. We have to minimize these shots on net. We can’t keep giving up 45-50 shots a night. It’s going to bite us at some point,” he said.
Angelidis gave Josh Rosenzweig his first start since taking over and the big backstop responded with a 45-save effort.
“Rosey was fantastic tonight,” Angelidis said. “Obviously we want to keep the goals lower than five but that’s a really good team and let’s be honest, they’re on the back end of a three-in-three so there’s some Lady Luck there.
“It happened to go our way tonight but we’ve got to be better than that and we’ll address that this week.”
The Battalion appeared to tie the game at 6-6 with just over six seconds to play on a wild scramble in front of Rosenzweig but the puck could not be seen crossing the goal line and the goal was disallowed.
Captain Landon Cato took the warmup but was unable to play
“I honestly don’t know why,” Angelidis said. “I was told after warmup he was unable to go.”
Ice cubes: Cato, Evan Klein, Andrew Wycisk and Rodwin Dionicio (suspended, eligible to return Dec. 2nd) did not dress for the IceDogs . . . Dom DiVincentiis, Tnias Mathurin, Avery Winslow, Kyle McDonald and Brett Bouchard were scratched for North Bay . . . All donations from the Teddy Bear toss go to Victim Services Niagara and Niagara Health . . . Robertson is a former Ridley College student . . . North Bay features seven NHL draft picks on their roster.
STATS PACK
IceDogs 6 Battalion 5
Niagara’s Daniel Michaud and North Bay’s Kyle Jackson.
Niagara IceDogs: Michaud 3 (3, 4, 5); Kevin He 2 (7, 8); Gerard Keane (2).
North Bay Battalion: Jackson 2 (13, 14); Liam Arnsby (5); Alexander Lukin (2); Ethan Procysyn (2).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Charlie Robertson (24), by North Bay on Josh Rosenzwieg (50); Power plays: Niagara 0/4, North Bay 0/4; Penalty minutes: Niagara 13, North Bay 13.
Attendance: 4,274.
Next up: The IceDogs are back home Thursday against Hamilton.
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