Underdog IceDogs no match for Bulldogs
The deck was stacked against the Niagara IceDogs Sunday.
Not only were the cellar-dwelling IceDogs taking on the hottest team in the Ontario Hockey League, but they were doing it with a depleted lineup minus six of their top nine forwards, their top-scoring defenceman and only 16 skaters.
“It’s unprecedented to have this many guys out of the lineup at one time,” IceDogs coach Billy Burke said, following a 10-2 loss to the Hamilton Bulldogs at Meridian Centre. “It’s our seventh game in 12 days with the youngest team in the league and a byproduct of that much hockey.”
The IceDogs were once again without Cameron Peters, Pano Fimis, Declan Waddick, Rodwin Dionicio and leading scorer Daniel Gushchin, all out with injuries. Liam VanLoon is serving the seventh game of a 10-game suspension and is eligible to return March 9. Forward Brice Cooke is serving the third game of a four-game suspension for a check to the head in Oshawa last week. He is eligible to return March. 4. As well, the team had to use defencemen Lucas Littlejohn and Sammy Douglas-Najem at forward.
“You’re just blind if you don’t think it’s a factor,” Burke said. “It’s two ends of the spectrum today. You have a loaded team healthy and rocking and a team in the ground floor of their rebuild missing half their lineup.”
The red-hot Bulldogs, who have won seven in row and 14 of their last 15 games, are now 7-0 versus the IceDogs this season.
“I think going into the game I was hoping we would have a little more desperation than them and maybe they would take us a little bit lightly, but give them credit, they played a strong game and just rolled,” Burke said. “We wanted to keep it a little bit closer and I thought maybe we were a little intimidated early and weren’t able to be as pesky as we would have liked to be.
“Too bad for sure and a long day.”
Burke said the club tried not to have a defeatist attitude.
“It’s all about opportunities. It’s an OHL game and that’s exciting. For most of these guys on both teams this is the highest level they’ll play. It’s an exciting league. It’s a fun league and we had a great crowd here to day so there was a lot to be excited about,” he said.
The Bulldogs dominated the first period, outshooting the IceDogs 19-7 while scoring five times. Hamilton registered the first eight shots on goal before Niagara finally hit the net just over eight minutes in.
Josh Rosenzweig, who celebrated his 19th birthday Sunday, took over for rookie Joey Costanzo to begin the second period but didn’t have any better of a time permitting five goals over the final two periods.
The IceDogs finally got on the board in the third period when Andrew Wycisk netted his second goal of the season. Rookie Ilia Chmelevski, playing in his seventh game, earned an assist on the play for his first OHL point. Daniel Michaud, who is looking more and more comfortable in an IceDogs uniform, added his 10th and now has six goals and 13 points in 20 games since joining Niagara in a trade with Oshawa.
Burke said the coaching staff won’t spend much time going over the game film on this one.
“There were definitely a few structural breakdowns. It doesn’t matter who is in the lineup or not, you can’t just forget how to play,” he said. “If anything, maybe three or four clips from this game but for the most part it’s throw it away and focus on the next one.”
The IceDogs, 3-4 in their last seven games, are in Peterborough Thursday and home to the Petes Friday. Burke said Dionicio and Waddick would likely be ready to play.
Ice cubes: Brenden Anderson Noah Van Vliet, Noah Roberts, Noah Nelson, Noah VandenBrink, Ethan Sims, Jorian Donovan and Mark Duarte did not dress for the Bulldogs
STATS PACK
Niagara’s Ilia Chmelevski and Hamilton’s Logan Morrison.
Bulldogs 10 IceDogs 2
Niagara IceDogs: Daniel Michaud (10); Andrew Wysick (2).
Hamilton Bulldogs: Ryan Winterton 2 (12, 13); Logan Morrison (23); George Diaco (18); Ryan Humphrey (16); Mason McTavish (12); Arber Xhekja (10); Gavin White (7); Giordano Biondi (6); Colton Kammerer (2).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Matteo Drobac (31), by Hamilton on Joey Costanzo (28)/Josh Rosenzweig (19); Power plays: Niagara 0/4, Hamilton 0/1; Penalty minutes: Niagara 2, Hamilton 8.
Attendance: 2,795 (sell out at 50 per cent capacity).
Up next: The IceDogs visit Peterborough Thursday and play host to the Petes Friday.
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