’Dogs come up short in rematch
It was the North Bay Battalion’s turn to choose the menu, and this time it was the Niagara IceDogs who went home hungry.
The race for the eighth, and final, playoff berth in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference tightened up Thursday night in North Bay, where the host Battalion avenged a 4-0 road loss to Niagara with a 4-1 victory that, while not quite as dominating, was just as satisfying and worth two important points.
North Bay, which outshot the IceDogs 40-34 after being outshot 54-30 last Saturday in St. Catharines, moved to within two points of Niagara for the final playoff berth, and the Battalion have a game in hand.
Oliver Castleman opened the scoring 15:24 into the first period with his 15th goal of the season for Niagara. After the getting behind the defence on the right faceoff circle, the speedy rookie from the Ottawa area beat former IceDog Brent Moran glove side on the back end.
It was a goal-scorer’s goal and, except for some key stops by Niagara goaltender Stephen Dhillion, including two when he poke checked the puck off a shooter’s stick and out of harm’s way, the rest of the highlights belonged to the hosts.
Brett McKenzie, with two; Kyle Potts, on the power play; and Steve Harland scored unanswered goals as the Battalion snapped a five-game losing streak.
Assistant coach Billy Burke said getting on the ice after a long road trip wasn’t a factor in the disappointing loss in the fourpoint game.
“It’s mid-February and we’ve been on long road trips before, and we’ve played great off the bus before,” he said. “We just weren’t willing, and weren’t able, to buy into the team concept of what needed to be done to be successful.”
North Bay’s strong defence and penchant for clogging the neutral zone stretched the ’Dogs out of their comfort zone in Thursday night’s game.
“Guys tried to do too much,” Burke said.
“We put pucks to the net, but no one was there to get rebounds in.”
Momentum from Saturday’s win accompanied the team on the bus and contributed to a strong start by Niagara.
“I thought we had a pretty good first period,” Burke said.
He conceded the boost from the strong start, combined with Saturday’s shutout win, may have given the young, rebuilding IceDogs a false sense of where they are in their development.
“Maybe we get a little too comfortable where we think we are a different team than what we are,” Burke said. “We’re not a team that can pull a 19-year-old or pull an NHL pick that can pull together for a five-minute stretch in the third period and pull games out.”
He said at this stage in their development as a team, the IceDogs need to approach games as an ongoing process that allows no room for a letdown.
“We need to be making investments in the first period that carry over into the second and eventually pay off in the third,” Burke said.
’Dog Biscuits: Adam McMaster of Beamsville has four goals and 14 assists in 47 games in his rookie season in North Bay. McMaster, the 13th overall selection in the 2016 OHL Priority Selection, scored 27 goals and added 26 assists with the Niagara North Stars in triple minor midget last season.