IceDogs pull rank on Generals in OT

What a difference 24 hours makes.

A night after coming out beyond flat in a 5-2 loss on home ice to the Sudbury Wolves, the Niagara IceDogs regrouped with an impressive 5-4 overtime victory against the Oshawa Generals on the road Friday night.

And as you see often in hockey a big save at one end of the ice leads to an ever bigger goal, seconds later, at the other end.

That was the case last night as Stephen Dhillon denied Serron Noel on a breakaway, Matthew Philip then gathered the puck and went coast-to-coast popping home his own rebound for his first goal of the season as the IceDogs improved to 4-2 on the season.

“Stevie’s the leader on our team,” Niagara head coach Billy Burke said. “He probably told me 40 times today that the losing streak ends tonight.

“He goes out and makes a huge save in overtime, and what do you know Matthew Philip – and he’s another guy who had a tough night last night who could have felt sorry for himself but he instead responded and competed.

“Everything we want in a player, Matthew Philip showed that tonight.”

Burke said a 20-minute video session before the game was also key in the team’s preparation.

“We called out guys on everything, and put guys on the spot for everything,” he said. “But it was great to see the guys respond and bounce back.”

Oshawa opened the scoring 4:39 into the first period but two quick goals by Niagara, including rookie Ian Martin’s first of his Ontario Hockey League career, midway through the opening stanza gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.

It was 2-2 after 20 minutes of play before Ben Jones scored two power-play goals just 20 seconds apart, midway through the second period, to give Niagara a 4-2 lead.

The IceDogs would in fact have a great night on special teams going 3-for-4 with the man-advantage, and perfect on the penalty kill as Oshawa went 0-for-5 on the power play.

“We definitely have put a huge emphasis on special-teams in practice this year,” Burke said. “(Assistant coaches) Ted (Dent) and Kris (Sparre) do a great job with the video and getting guys in place.”

However, Oshawa would tie things up sending the game to the third period tied at four.

The IceDogs were definitely the fresher looking, more hungry, team outshooting the Generals 10-4 in the final frame, and 5-2 in the overtime period before Philip sealed the deal.

“This win really speaks to the character of the team,” Burke said. “If we’re a low-character team, we could have just rolled over tonight, especially when they made it 4-4.”

’Dog Biscuits: There were two first period glass delays … Drew Hunter played in his first game of the season for Niagara … Danial Singer finished the game with one goal and two assists, while Akil Thomas added two helpers and now leads the team with nine points, four goals, five assists; in six games … Kirill Maksmiov has been suspended two games for his fiveminute match slew-footing penalty Thursday night against Sudbury.