’Dogs back on track
Niagara holds on to beat Sudbury to move from ninth to seventh in race for final playoff berth
Just call ’em the Niagara Kryptonites.
The Kryptonites — a.k.a. the Niagara IceDogs — proved to be the ultimate party poppers Sunday afternoon in Sudbury, where they held on for a 5-4 victory to deprive the host Wolves a comic book ending to their annual Superhero Game.
The Wolves hit the ice wearing blue, grey, yellow and black Batman-themed jerseys, but they forget to pack any extra goals in their utility belts.
“I guess we showed them our kryptonite out there,” IceDogs head coach Dave Bell said with a chuckle.
Niagara snapped a two-game losing streak and moved two points ahead of the idle North Bay Battalion and Ottawa 67’s in the race for the eighth, and final, playoff berth in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.
Ottawa, 20-29-5-1, has played two fewer games than Niagara, 19-28-6-4, while North Bay, 21-313-1, has a game in hand.
“It’s a huge win, a huge two points,” Bell said of the victory in Sudbury. “Any time you can go from ninth to seventh is a pretty significant swing.”
The IceDogs were playing their second game in less than 24 hours. They dropped an 8-1 decision the night before to the Soo Greyhounds, also on the road, and began the swing through northeastern Ontario with a 4-1 loss Thursday in North Bay.
“This is probably the toughest road trip of the year with the travel and the schedule and the days off, the distance on the bus,” Bell said. “It’s a hard trip, whether you’re a young team or an old one.”
The end result isn’t the only thing that pleased the coach of the young, rebuilding team. He also praised the players for their effort in executing the game play.
“I like the fact we were disciplined, and I liked the fact our guys knew before we even went out on the ice they were going to try to intimidate us, smash us around and bully us,” Bell said.
“But our guys just didn’t care. They just held their ground.
“They took hits, they took slashes, and they just kept playing away. They didn’t deviate from our game and our goal of getting some points.”
Niagara players didn’t spend much time stewing over the lopsided loss to the Greyhounds.
“It took us about 15 minutes,” Bell said. “Then we put on a good movie and forgot all about it.”
He couldn’t recall the title but said the movie was about mascots.
“I don’t understand these teenage movies, but they liked it, so whatever works,” the 39-year-old coach said with a chuckle.
Niagara, which improved to 4-0-1 in head-to-head play with Sudbury this season, dominated play in the first period, but the visitors were only able to take a 1-0 lead into the second period.
Aaron Haydon opened the scoring 7:05 into the game with a goal on Niagara’s first power play of the afternoon. He beat Jake McGrath stick side on a rebound for his seventh goal of the season after the Wolves failed to clear the puck out of harm’s way.
Justin Brack knocked in his own rebound for his fifth of the campaign and Ondrej Machala beat a Sudbury defender to the puck and scored on a one-timer, No. 7 of the season; to put the IceDogs up by three and end McGrath’s afternoon.
Replacing McGrath, who allowed three goals on 28 shots, was someone whose name is familiar to junior B fans in Niagara. In addition to seeing action for the Fort Erie Meteors during the 2014-15 season and starting this season with the Caledonia Corvairs, MacKenzie Savard played eight minutes in one game for the IceDogs two years ago.
Savard came into Sunday’s game without a warmup and surrendered Niagara’s fourth goal on his first shot on net. Kirill Maksimov, despite being shadowed by Sudbury defender in front of the net, bound the smallest of holes between Savard’s left pad and the upright for his 12th goal of the season.
Michael Pezzetta gave the hosts some hope when he batted a ricochet off the back board that beat Stephen Dhillon on his glove side.
Oliver Castleman, with his 16th of the season for IceDogs; and Sudbury’s Macauley Carson traded goals to round out the scoring in a second period in which the Wolves had the edge in shots, 15-11.
Carson deflected a shot from Grimsby native Liam Dunda past a screened Dhillon to make it a twogoal game.
Dmitry Sokolov scored on the power play for Sudbury midway into the final frame to round out the scoring.
’Dog Biscuits: A silent auction was held throughout the game, with proceeds from the sale of the Wolves’ superhero jerseys going to children’s health care in Northeastern Ontario … Local content: Zack Bowman, 19, of St. Catharines has 3.47 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage in 26 games in net for the Wolves this season; forward Liam Dunda, also 19, of Grimsby has eight goals and nine assists in 51 games in the Sudbury lineup … Thorold native Conor Timmins had six shots for the Greyhounds and finished Saturday night’s game plus one on defence … Danial Singer, with his11th goal of the season; accounted for Niagara’s scoring in the loss in Sault Ste. Marie.
Niagara IceDogs head coach Dave Bell It’s a huge win, a huge two points. Any time you can go from ninth to seventh is a pretty significant swing.”