’Dogs tamed in OT
Visiting Peterborough rebounds from two-goal deficit to push Niagara to brink of elimination
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.
A pass from Ryan Mantha on Niagara’s first opportunity with the man advantage found its mark in convincing fashion as Kirill Maksimov deflection tied the game at one-all heading into the first intermission.
Niagara went up 3-1 on evenstrength goals from Ondrej Machala, who skated in front the left faceoff circle and beat Dylan Wells stick side, and Mantha, pulling the trigger of the middle of the left faceoff circle on a bullet that beat Wells on his glove side, before Steven Lorentz scored on the power play to cut the lead to one.
With 27 seconds remaining in the second period, Lorentz made it a 3-3 game going into the break.
Both goaltenders left nothing to chance as the game went on, preferring to smother the puck rather than surrender rebounds that could come back to haunt them.
Defencemen likewise stayed close to home creating gridlock in shooting lanes and, more often that, forcing dump-ins behind the net or shots to go wide.
A hooking call put Petes captain Brandon Prophet into the penalty box with 1:54 remaining in regulation, but a stingy Peterborough defence limited the IceDogs to two shots on the power play.
The drama could have ended earlier in Peterborough’s favour but the puck bounced out, not in, after the Petes hit a goalpost.
Josh Coyle completed the comeback for the Petes finding the back of the net after finding the puck in traffic in front of the IceDogs crease. ’Dog Biscuits: This is the first time the IceDogs have faced Peterborough in the playoffs since relocating to St. Catharines from Mississauga 10 years ago … IceDogs defenceman Willie Lochead was in the lineup for the first time since suffering a concussion in a Feb. 26 road game against the Ottawa 67’s … Peterborough has six NHL draft picks, including goaltender and St. Catharines native Dylan Wells, selected in the fifth round, 123rd overall, by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft … There are six NHL draft picks in the Petes … A minute of silence was observed before the game for seven-year-old murder victim Nathan Dumas of St. Catharines … Last night’s game was broadcast nationally by Sportsnet … Performing the national anthem was the choir from College Street Public School in Smithville, while the drum line band from Notre Dame College School from Welland entertained during breaks in the action … A St. Catharines double A bantam team that went 17-1 in the playoffs to win an Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship took a bow at centre ice before the opening faceoff. They will be competing at the Ontario Hockey Federation finals April 6-9 in Timmins … Welland native and ECHL Hall of Famer Vitucci was at the game scouting for the New Jersey Devils.
I’m not disappointed in one guy. Every guy played their hardest, everybody cared, everybody did the right thing.” IceDogs head coach Dave Bell