Ice Dogs come up huge to open season with win
The Niagara Ice Dogs couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season.
Colton Incze made 32 saves as the Ice Dogs opened the 2016/17 Ontario Hockey League campaign with a 3-1 victory over the North Bay Battalion.
It was new bench boss Dave Bell’s first victory as a head coach, but the long-time assistant didn’t want to bask in the spotlight, instead preferring to focus on his young charges.
“I’ve been in the league 12 years so I’m way more happy for the guys,” Bell said. “We had Colton Incze play his first game and have a huge game. We had 10 guys play their first OHL game, and my god, what an effort they had.
“They played the way we need to play and I can honestly say every guy contributed tonight whether it was a blocked shot or a chipped in puck, everybody played and everybody contributed, which was nice.”
The Ice Dogs were without forwards Graham Knott and Chris Paquette and goalie Stephen Dhillon, who were all away at National Hockey League camps. Toss in half a lineup of rookies and it would have been easy for the Ice Dogs to be overwhelmed.
“They were disciplined and keep their shifts short,” Bell said. “We lost (Nick) Pastorious (game misconduct) and then Johnny Corneil got banged up and missed a big part of the middle of the game so they bought in and kept the energy high to get through the game.
“We had a tired bunch and the end. Short staffed and young bunch going against a pretty heavy team is a great accomplishment for them.”
Following a scoreless opening period which saw Niagara outshoot North Bay 14-7, Brad Chenier opened the scoring for the Battalion early in the second.
Willy Lochead netted Niagara’s
first goal of the season just over five minutes into the second with assists from Kyle Langdon and rookie Akil Thomas. Less than a minute later Langdon scored with an assist from import Ondrej Machala.
Matthew Philip made it 3-1 Ice Dogs with his first OHL goal early in the third period to conclude the scoring.
The Ice Dogs now have a week off before hosting the Kingston Frontenacs next Friday at the Meridian Centre.
They played the way we need to play and I can honestly say every guy contributed tonight whether it was a blocked shot or a chipped in puck, everybody played and everybody contributed, which was nice.” Dave Bell