A 60-minute effort
One night after playing only ‘18 minutes’ against 67’s IceDogs play full game versus Frontenacs
The Niagara IceDogs went winless in back-to-back games on the weekend in eastern Ontario.
The IceDogs didn’t return home to St. Catharines emptyhanded, though.
From a 6-5 loss to Ottawa 67’s Friday, they learned that playing less than one period won’t get the job done.
The following night, in a 5-3 loss to the Kingston Frontenacs, they found out they are capable of keeping pace with a championship contender.
“I thought we played 18 minutes in Ottawa,” head coach Billy Burke said. “We were just too swingy, made too many soft plays where we usually make hard plays.”
Burke gave the IceDogs credit for “roaring back” in the third period against the 67’s and bringing that momentum with them to Kingston, where they played a full 60 minutes against a team that loaded up at the trade deadline to make a run for a Memorial Cup championship.
“I thought we had a real strong game tonight,” he said. “We’re all winners on this bus and we hate losing, but we can live with losing how we lost tonight.
“They guys competed. I thought Colton Incze and Johnny Corneil, especially, had two strong games for us.”
He said the play of Frontenacs goaltender Jeremy Helvig made all the difference in the final game of a four-game season series between the Eastern Conference rivals.
“He definitely stole this game for them,” Burke said. “That’s why Kingston decided to load up.
“They realized this is Helvig’s last year and he’s a special player, and he proved that tonight.”
“I honestly think we were the better team.”
The Frontenacs scored two empty-net goals and two on the power play, including one that found the back of net off a bad bounce from a Niagara defender trying to clear the puck.
“For us to come in there and they give us absolutely everything they have, to barely escape with that win is certainly a nice sign of growth for us.”
The IceDogs outshot their hosts 18-9 in the first period, their high for one period the season so far.
However, they had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard, thanks to Helvig and a Frontenacs forecheck that kept many shots outside the perimeter.
Incze matched Helvig save-for-save until 7:02 into the second when Jason Robertson connected on the power play to open the scoring for the Frontenacs.
Ben Jones nearly netted the equalizer on Niagara’s next possession but the Vegas Golden Knights draft pick was robbed by Helvig who by then was well on his way to earning star of the game honours.
Shots in the second were 15 apiece but it was Niagara that made the most of its scoring opportunities. Corneil set up Akil Thomas’ 15th goal of the season with a playmaker’s pass from behind the net and Sam Miletic scored his 26th overall, and 10th as an IceDog, to put Niagara up 2-1 heading into the third period.
Goals from Cliff Pu, on the power play; Ryan Cranford, into an empty net; and Linus Nyman put the Frontenacs up 4-2 before Danial Singer made it a one-goal with his 22nd of the campaign with 49 seconds remaining in regulation.
Nyman rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter with four seconds left on the clock.
Shots were 39-all.
Kingston went 2-for-4 on the power play; Niagara, 0-for-1.
With the win, the Frontenacs took the season series with the IceDogs 3-1 and improved to 2716-4-3.
Niagara lost its third in a row dropping to 26-16-4-2 in league play and falling two points behind the Barrie Colts, 29-18-2-1; for first place in the Central Division.
Niagara has a game in hand on Barrie.
The IceDogs visit the Kitchener Rangers Tuesday and host the Sault Ste. Greyhounds two nights later. Puck drop for both games is 7 p.m.
’Dog Biscuits:
Saturday night’s game was a homecoming of sorts for Billy Burke who played football and hockey at Queen’s University in Kingston ... Niagara’s Adrian Carbonara and Kingston’s Liam Murray were both given fiveminute majors and ejected from the game for a fight 2:04 into the game.