Soo, flu hound ’Dogs
IceDogs battle flu bug in midst of five-game stretch on the road
The sixth-ranked junior hockey team in North America wasn’t the only foe the Niagara IceDogs faced Saturday night in Sault Ste. Marie.
In addition to trying to slow down the aptly named Greyhounds, a flu bug going through the team kept veteran defencemen Elijah Roberts and Johnathon Schaefer out of the lineup.
Two players who did see action in Niagara’s second road game in northern Ontario in as many nights became sick between periods.
“Definitely a gutsy effort against the sixth-ranked national team, but we’re a hurting team right now,” head coach Billy Burke said after the IceDogs dropped a 4-1 decision for their sixth loss in a row.
The setback notwithstanding, Burke rated his team’s performance against the Soo as “pretty good.”
The ’Dogs jumped out of the gate and kept pace with the Greyhounds throughout a scoreless first period in which shots favoured the hosts 10-9.
Niagara also excelled on the penalty kill with the ‘Hounds finishing the game 0-for-3 on the power play, and the IceDogs had the edge in winning faceoffs, 30-23.
“Guys came in and they battled,” Burke said. “A couple of mistakes cost us.”
Hayden Verbeek opened scoring for the hosts with an evenstrength goal 10:22 into the second period.
But it became a one-all game less than a minute later when Kirill Makismov converted a highlightreel setup pass from Ben Jones for his eighth goal of the season.
The Soo’s Boris Katchouk, taking full advantage of a turnover while his team was defending on the penalty
kill, scored a shorthanded goal at the 12:39-minute mark to round out the scoring in the second period.
Burke said the Greyhounds, sixth in the latest Canadian Hockey
League rankings and second only to the top-ranked Sarnia Sting in the Ontario Hockey League, have a well-deserved reputation for pouncing on an opponent’s mistakes.
“They’re fast, they’re very opportunistic,” he said. “If you make a mistake or a turnover at a blue line or a red line, in your own end, they have the firepower to make you pay.”
If you make a mistake or a turnover at a blue-line or a red line, in your own end, they have the firepower to make you pay.”
Niagara IceDogs head coach Billy Burke
Allowing a shorthanded goal, the coach said, can knock the wind out of a team’s sails.
“It’s not good, it’s discouraging,” Burke said. “We have faith in our power play, but they didn’t get it back.”
Niagara went 0-for-3 on the power play.
Barrett Hayton, on a rebound in front of Niagara net that should have been cleared after Stephen Dhillon made the initial stop, and Tim Gettinger, shorthanded with Dhillon out of the IceDogs net in favour of an extra attacker as time wound date late in the third period, scored insurance goals as the Greyhounds won their third in a row.
The Soo outshot Niagara 34-23. The IceDogs, in the midst of a fivegame stretch away from home, play two road games next weekend — Saturday, Barrie Colts, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, North Bay Battalion, 7:30 p.m. — before they return home to Meridian Centre for a 7 p.m. puck drop Thursday, Nov. 16, versus the Kingston Frontenacs.
Burke said the priority for the team right now is to take two days off to get healthy and then get ready to play a “huge game” against Barrie.
“That team’s been rocking,” he said of the Colts, who received honourable mention when the CHL released its latest rankings.
Barrie leads the Central Division with a record of 10-4-1-1. Four points back are the IceDogs, 7-5-3-1.
The two teams have yet to face each other this season. In all, Niagara will play Barrie six times before the 2017-18 campaign wraps up in mid-March.
’Dog Biscuits: In addition to battling the flu, Roberts was banged up on a play in Friday night’s game against the Sudbury Wolves … Thorold native Conor Timmins was out of the Greyounds lineup serving a one-game suspension … Niagara Falls native Mac Hollowell was a standout on defence for the Greyhounds finishing the game with a plus-1 as he received ample ice time in the absence of Timmins and Noah Carroll, also out with a suspension.