IceDogs excel on special teams
The Niagara IceDogs started the Ontario Hockey League’s second season the same way they ended the first one — on a winning streak.
They scored six unanswered goals, four of them in the third period, in a 6-1 victory over the Oshawa Generals to take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final against.
The come-from-behind victory was the ninth in a row the IceDogs, who ended the regular season with seven straight wins.
Fourth-seeded Niagara excelled on special teams going 4-for-11 with the man advantage and limited No. 5 seed Oshawa to one goal in 11 power-play opportunities in a penalty-filled game Sunday afternoon at Meridian
Centre in St. Catharines.
“It’s great for their confidence, these guys work hard on the video and in practice, so it’s great to see them get rewarded,” IceDogs head coach Billy Burke said of his power-play and penaltykilling units.
“Mentally, it’s good both ways. On kills letting in goals gets to you and when you’re scoring a lot it creeps into your mind, too.
“It doesn’t matter they stopped this one, we’ll go and get the next one.”
Thanks to IceDogs goaltender Stephen Dhillon, it was only a one-goal game heading into the third period. After giving up a goal he would love to have back, the third-year veteran shut out the Generals the rest of the way.
As was the case Friday night, when Niagara skated to a 4-2 victory in the series opener, several of Dhillon’s 36 saves Sunday were of the highlight-reel variety.
“For sure, he muffed it on the first one, then he steps up and makes some huge saves on the 5-on-3,” Burke said. “They could have made it 2-0 but he shut the door.
“That’s what elite goalies do.” Dhillon said he was glad to put the Oshawa goal behind him.
“It was just sort of a bad bounce there, definitely one that we need to get in the future,” Dhillon said. “I owed the boys and we had a big couple of (penal-
ty) kills there, we grabbed the momentum and our power play came through huge for us.
“You always just want to make that next save, regardless of whether it’s a dump-in, crosscrease of back-door pass,” he said of holding Oshawa scoreless on a 5-on-3 power play.
“It was great to be able to help the boys, and to get that kill was huge for us.”
Oshawa outshot Niagara 12-6 in a penalty-filled first period that saw the IceDogs go to the box six times and the Generals five. There was only 1:55 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey in the period.
Oshawa’s Allan McShane opened the scoring 5:03 into the game with a power-play goal. Collecting an assist was one-time IceDog Hayden McCool.
Liam Ham’s equalizer for Niagara, with 1:21 remaining in the frame, also was scored on — what else? — the power play.
The second period in Sunday’s matinee belonged to the IceDogs. They outshot Oshawa 15-7 and went up 2-1 on an even-strength goal from Adrian Carbonara.
Sam Miletic and Bradey Johnson scored 31 seconds apart to give Niagara a 4-1 lead. The power-play goal was Miletic’s second of the playoffs.
After Oshawa captain Jack Studnicka and Justin McPherson traded punches, with Studinka getting an instigator penalty as well as a 10-minute misconduct, hockey action resumed with Akil Thomas and Miletic scoring on the power play to give Niagara a five-goal lead.
The opening game in the first IceDogs-Generals playoff series in three years was won by Niagara in whistle-to-whistle fashion. Drew Hunter, Miletic, Ben Jones and Thomas scored for the IceDogs who ended an eight-game win drought in post-season play.
Studnicka, with Niagara up 2-0, and Matt Brassard, who rounded the scoring, replied for the visitors.
Shots on net in Friday night’s game were 36-36. Oshawa went 1-for-4 on the power play and scored a shorthanded goal, while Niagara was 0-for-3 with a man advantage.
The IceDogs came into the series hoping to end an eightgame playoff win drought and score their first victory in postseason play since defeating the Barrie Colts 3-2 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final in 2016.
’Dog Biscuits: Kyle Langdon, C; Ian Martin, RW; Daniel Nardi, D; Johnathon Schafer, D; were not in the Niagara lineup. Langdon was serving a game suspension for a blind-side hit in Game 1 … The IceDogs franchise has made the playoffs each since relocating to St. Catharines from Mississauga 11 years ago … Niagara defenceman Billy Constantinou, the team’s second pick in the 2017 OHL draft, celebrated his 17th birthday Sunday … Performing the national anthem was the choir from Grapeview Public School in St. Catharines … Former IceDogs Luke Mercer, 201314, was in the stands taking in the game.