Slow start costly for IceDogs
It was Teddy Bear toss night Saturday evening at the Meridian Centre, however, there was anything but a warm and fuzzy feeling when the final horn sounded.
The Niagara IceDogs followed up one of their best efforts of the season Thursday in a win over Ottawa with one of their most frustrating, dropping a 5-1 decision to the North Bay Battalion in an Ontario Hockey League game before a season-high crowd of 4,792 fans.
The loss stung enough, but it was the way things transpired that had IceDogs coach Billy Burke so upset he was tagged with a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct in the midst of a slew of penalties in the third period that had a few fans furious enough to toss garbage on the ice.
“I can’t say anything or I’ll get fined,” Burke said calmly when given the opportunity to vent. “The fans in the stands had a pretty good assessment of it.”
Referees Riley Page and Matt Scott were front and centre beginning with a check to the head call on Niagara defenceman Rodwin Dionicio late in the first period. When shown on replay, the hit appeared to be nothing more than a shoulder to the chest clean check.
Toss in an odd double minor to IceDogs rearguard Alex Leonard that was called following a stoppage in play, and three stick infractions in under four minutes, and Burke had seen enough.
“I definitely can’t lose my cool, first and foremost, and then the guys get angry but the guys work so hard and try so hard and want it so bad,” he said. “It’s hard enough when you have to go against a great OHL team over there and anything that gets thrown at you makes the hill even bigger.
“You know what it is and you have to watch sticks and things like that.”
The extended power play gave the high-powered Battalion a chance to break open a 3-1 game, which they did with a pair of goals less than a minute apart.
Tensions then boiled over again when Jake Uberti and Simon Rose dropped their gloves while forward Danil Gushchin was given a 10-minute misconduct which saw him smash his stick at the bench as he exited for the evening.
The IceDogs didn’t do themselves any favours falling behind 3-0 by the 14:21 mark of the first period.
“You have to give North Bay credit, they’re a very good team, they lead the league in first period goals and they score in bunches,” Burke said. “We saw that firsthand in a little five-minute stretch in the first period. Outside of that, these guys battled hard and it was a much closer game than the final score shows.”
Burke called a time out at that point which seemed to settled things down.
“I wanted to slow it down and stop it and maybe if we scored in the first and the Teddy Bears can come and then we would have another break,” he said. “It was really just a refocus. We’re still young and growing.
“We had a good chat and I really liked the energy and the response from it. Not ideal using your time out in the first period, but I got the feel to slow things down.”
Dakota Betts finally got the IceDogs on the board early in the second which set loose about 7,000 Teddy Bears streaming to the ice followed by about an eight-minute delay in the proceedings.
Niagara permitted the Battalion only three shots in the second and could have got back into the game with another goal.
“We were buzzing. We were excited. We had opportunities to score in the second and maybe make it a little closer,” Burke said.
Burke feels the overall effort was a step in the right direction.
“I think they realize how we can have success,” he said. “I actually feel like they are coming together a little but right now. Hopefully we use this as a bit of an unofficial team builder and build off of it and continue to strive for a full 60. I definitely think we’re turning the corner and it’s fun to see and fun to be around again.
“Obviously still a ton of work to do but I think those guys should be proud. They worked hard tonight.”
Ice cubes: Tucker Tynan, Sami Douglas-Najeem and Declan Waddick were scratched for the IceDogs . . . Forwards Cameron Snow and Ethan Sims have cleared OHL waivers and have left the organization.
STATS PACK
Battalion 5 IceDogs 1
Niagara’s Dakota Betts and North Bay’s Brandon Coe.
For the Niagara IceDogs: Betts (3).
For the North Bay Battalion: Coe (14); Mitchell Russell (13); Ty Nelson (6); Owen Van Steensel (2); Avery Winslow (1).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Dom DiVencentiis (32), by North Bay on Josh Rosenzweig (28); Power plays: Niagara 0-for-5, North Bay 2-for-7; Penalty minutes: Niagara 21, North Bay 17.
Attendance: 4,792.
Up next: The IceDogs are at Mississauga Friday and home to Kingston Saturday, Dec. 11.
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