Undermanned IceDogs rally past Otters
The Niagara IceDogs weren’t about to take the easy way out versus the Erie Otters.
With five regulars out of the lineup, the IceDogs were clear underdogs yet refused to use their depleted lineup as an excuse.
The IceDogs rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Otters 6-3 in Ontario Hockey League action Sunday afternoon at Meridian Centre.
The game featured a wild third period that saw the IceDogs score twice in six seconds to take a 3-2 lead in a frantic final 20 minutes that saw the teams combine for six goals.
Niagara head coach Ben Boudreau was proud of his charges for their gutsy effort.
“It just takes any excuse out that you can do anything when you work together,” he said. “You could have made every single excuse not to win tonight.”
The IceDogs were without captain Kevin He, who was suspended pending a review as the result of a hit Friday in Erie, as well as forwards Mathieu Paris, Alex Assadourian and Mike Levin. Winger Blake Arrowsmith dressed but was ill and defenceman Andrew Wycisk was used as a forward.
“Take your pick of any type of excuse you could have had built in, but they refused to use any type of excuse,” Boudreau said. “It makes you so proud to watch their demeanour that they worked so hard to get that result and they achieved it together.
“It was really fun to be around that.”
With such a makeshift lineup, the IceDogs had trouble generating any offence early, finally scoring when Ryan Roobroeck beat former Niagara netminder Charlie Burns late in the second to give them a spark.
And while the offence was trying to find a way, Niagara goaltender Owen Flores kept a lid on things, once again giving his team a chance.
“When you leave a good scoring hockey team around, that’s what you need to do sometimes,” Boudreau said. “You need to get that punch. We found a way to score in the third period and just use the momentum. We knew that they had played three games in three nights.”
The IceDogs had emptied their tanks as well.
“We were real short, dead and dying,” Boudreau said. “I think some of our forwards played close to 30 minutes, which is absolutely wild to even fathom, but we just stayed with it long enough and played a 60-minute hockey game.
“We found a way to gut it out so very, very gutsy. Come from behind to win on home ice, it was awesome.”
The IceDogs, 27-15-2-2, sit in third spot of the Eastern Conference, two points in arrears of the Barrie Colts for top spot. The IceDogs are at Barrie Friday.
“More so than the seeding and the wins, I think playing the right way coming down the stretch is going to be important,” Boudreau said. “We saw what Barrie was like in playoff hockey, it was an eye opener. We saw Brantford play playoff hockey against us and we thought that was an eye opener. Same thing, I thought we brought it against Erie and played really good on Friday and lost in the shootout.”
Ice cubes: Mathieu Paris, Alex Assadourian, Mike Levin, Rafek Dianov and Kevin He did not dress for the IceDogs.
STATS PACK
IceDogs 6 Otters 3
Niagara IceDogs: Ryan Roobroeck (32); Andrei Loshko (28); Max Crete (11); Sean Doherty (7); Noah Van Vliet (5); Matthew Virgilio (4).
Erie Otters: Pano Fimis 2 (18,19); Tyler Challenger (2).
Game stats: Shots on goal: By Niagara on Charlie Burns (25), by Erie on Owen Flores (45); Power plays: Niagara 3/7, Erie 1/7; Penalty minutes: Niagara 14, Erie 14.
Attendance: 3,111
Next up: The IceDogs are in Barrie Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and in North Bay Sunday at 1 p.m.
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