Petes sweep UnderDogs
Overachieving IceDogs receive standing ovation after Peterborough advances to second round of OHL playoffs
The underdogs did not leave the ice unappreciated, nor unheralded and definitely not unloved.
After the eighth-seeded Niagara IceDogs finished congratulating the No. 1 seed Peterborough Petes for sweeping an Ontario Hockey League Eastern Conference quarter-final four games to none, it was the IceDogs’ turn to be on the receiving end of cheers.
Saluting tremendous community support throughout a rebuilding year that included 12 sellouts at Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, Niagara fans’ best friend raised their sticks as they received a standing ovation for overachieving and making the playoffs with as many as 14 rookies in the lineup on some nights.
On Thursday the IceDogs again fell short on the scoreboard — Peterborough 6, Niagara 2 — though not in the eyes of their head coach, Dave Bell.
“That group in there, I’m really, really proud of,” he said pointing to the dressing room behind him. “All you ask as a coach, and this is the end of my 12 or 13th year, is you listen, you work as hard as you possibly can, you be a good teammate and a good person in the community.”
“That group in an awesome group for that, and I’m proud of them as a team, as individuals and for what did in the community, we had more community appearances than ever.”
Bell said he felt “privileged” having such a team in his first season as IceDogs head coach.
“There are only 20 guys in the league who get to call themselves head coaches, and if you take it for granted you’re an idiot.”
Pride, care and “being a good teammate” all contributed to the IceDogs finishing the season with 23 victories, defying pundits, many of whom predicted the team would be lucky to win 10 games.
“When you have good people, you never what can happen,” Bell said, praising the leadership qualities of team captain Ryan Mantha, fellow overagers Justin Brack and Aaron Haydon, as well as Johnny Corneil, who is eligible to return for another season.
The 2016-17 season was nonetheless a success despite the early playoff exit. At the start of the year the team set a goal of “playing meaningful games” down the stretch, making the playoffs and experiencing the pressure of overtime in the playoffs.
“We were able to check off all those boxes.”
A good thing happened in threes when Ben Jones, No. 3, and Corneil, No. 23, set up Kirill Maksimov, No. 13, for his teamleading fourth goal of the playoffs to give the IceDogs an early lead 14:12 into the first period in last night’s game at Meridian Centre.
Maksimov had just returned to the ice after serving a penalty for high sticking and Jones was already in the box, on a roughing call; when the goal was ruled official following a video review.
Originally, it was ruled no goal, but replays showed the puck had not been kicked into the net by a skate.
Peterborough made it 1-1 a little more than three minutes later. A sprawling Stephen Dhillon, still on the ice following a previous save, was in no position to stop Josh Coyle’s shot into the top of the net from the right of the crease.
Jonathan Ang gave the Petes a one-goal lead heading into the break beating Dhillon glove side with a rocket from just above the right faceoff circle with just 15 seconds remaining in the opening period.
Peterborough’s Steven Lorentz and Niagara’s Daniel Singer traded goals to open the scoring in the second period. Singer’s goal, from the slot on the power play that beat St. Catharines native Dylan Wells’ glove side, was his second of the playoffs.
Ang’s second of the game and fifth of the playoffs put the Petes up by two with 58 seconds left in the middle frame.
Logan DeNoble and Matyas Svoboda, on a trickler that had some life in it after Dhillon appeared to stop it initially, padded Peterborough’s lead to four.
This is the earliest playoff exit ever in the 19-year history of franchise that played nine seasons in Mississauga before relocating to St. Catharines at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. The IceDogs were eliminated in five games in the opening round of post-season play on five occasions, including three during their Mississauga years.
Wise Guys Charities were honoured on the red carpet in an on-ice ceremony at centre ice before the opening faceoff … A minute of silence was observed for retired educator and a longtime IceDogs fan Ronald C. Swayze who died Tuesday at age 78. He spent 35 years as a teacher and principal with the former Niagara South Board of Education … Jesse Stull performed the national anthem … Fans showed their support for the family of seven-year-old St. Catharines murder victim Nathan Dumas by donating $3,079.35 in Game 3 … Among the scratches from the Petes lineup was Eddie Schulz whose goal in the third overtime gave the Caledonia Corvairs a 3-2 victory over the St. Catharines Falcons in Game 1 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Golden Horseshoe Conference final.