’Dogs tamed in OT
Visiting Peterborough rebounds from two-goal deficit to push Niagara to brink of elimination
POSTMEDIA NETWORK
The Niagara IceDogs’ best performance of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs earned plenty of praise, though no points.
Unlike the regular season, when teams are awarded consolation points for a loss in overtime or in a shootout, the only thing the eighth-seeded IceDogs received was the satisfaction of knowing the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and a team put together with a long playoff run in mind needed 78 minutes to beat them.
A 4-3 come-from-behind win Tuesday night at Meridian Centre in St, Catharines gives the Peterborough Petes a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven, opening-round playoff series and pushes Niagara to the brink of elimination.
Next game is Thursday night, also at Meridian Centre, and IceDogs head coach Dave Bell is confident his players will be able to rebound from the disappointing loss and battle just as hard as they in Game 3.
“I’m not disappointed in one guy,” he said. “Every guy played their hardest, everybody cared, everybody did the right thing.
“An overtime goal — bingo, bongo rolling around in the slot — goes in, but I have no issues with the way we played.”
Niagara, despite being sellers at the trade deadline in order to focus on development, is giving the Petes, a team that loaded up at the deadline in hopes of going deep into the playoffs, a “good run.”
“I’m extremely proud of them,” Bell said. “They’re geared to win and we’re growing, but I think we’re giving them a good fight here.
“For 71 games I can’t say they’ve quit in one game ever, and I don’t expect them to quit in Game 72.”
Peterborough was on the power play and concentrated at the Niagara end of the ice when a failure to clear the puck up the ice resulted in the first goal of the game. Jonathan Ing intercepted a short pass at the top of the right faceoff circle and roofed the puck into the top of the net, on Stephen Dhillon’s glove side, from the middle of the left faceoff circle.
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Titans River Lions 120 103
Postmedia Network of the Game: Former River Lions guard Adam Blazek with 28 points including eight 3-pointers. For Niagara: Kirk Williams Jr. (32), Nick Okorie (19), Carl Hall (12) Marcus Lewis (11) and Sam Muldrow (10). For Kitchener-Waterloo: Blazek (28), Flenard Whitfield (23) Jason Calliste (19) and Ed Horton (14). Shooting Percentage: River Lions: 46.7; Titans 47.7 Rebounds: Niagara (55); KitchenerWaterloo (50) Turnovers: River Lions (20); Titans (15) Free Throws: Niagara 12-for-24; Kitchener-Waterloo 11-for-17. Up Next: The River Lions visit Kitchener-Waterloo Saturday night, before hosting the Saint John Riptide Sunday afternoon. Tip-off at Meridian Centre is 2 p.m.