Outage on offence
Niagara IceDogs having trouble scoring when playing at even strength
The Niagara IceDogs ended the weekend on a losing note dropping a 4-1 decision to the Steelheads Sunday afternoon in Mississauga.
Even strength the score was 1-1, but the Steelheads scored two power-play goals and one shorthanded marker as they won their third in a row and fourth in five starts.
Burke didn’t think the IceDogs took any unnecessary penalties, nor did he fault the penalty-killing unit for the team’s fourth loss in a row and second straight in regulation.
“I thought our discipline was pretty good actually,” he said.
“Our PK has been great, it’s been a backbone all year.”
Burke, whose team’s scoring in a 5-2 loss Saturday night at home to the Sudbury Wolves was limited to Kirill Maksimov’s goal and Ben Jones’ shorthanded marker, said the IceDogs needs to work to become a five-man offensive unit.
“It’s kind of the way things go up and down over the course of the season, but you don’t obviously want anything to linger.”
In addition to focusing on generating more opportunities on offence, Burke said the IceDogs intend to focus on tightening up play on special teams.
“I also think we can be a better shot-blockling team, so that’s something we are going to work on next week for sure.”
The Ontario Hockey League team’s second loss in less than 24 hours marked the beginning of a stretch of five road games.
Niagara, 7-4-2-1, won’t be back on the ice at Meridian Centre in St. Catharines until Thursday, Nov. 16, when they host the Kingston Frontenacs.
With the win, Mississauga, 5-9, avenged a 6-3 loss to the IceDogs 6-3 in St. Catharines.
The game was much closer than the final score with “snakebitten” Niagara hitting three goalposts and one crossbar.
Burke is confident the bad breaks of late will be evened out with bounces in Niagara’s favour over the course of the 68-game season.
“Over the course of season, you will go into stretches where you will get some bounces,” he said. “We got some bounces early.
“It’s cliche, but really the harder you work, the more you create your own bounces.”
For the most part, the IceDogs did just that in the latter stages against Mississauga though not at the beginning of the game.
“It’s a good lesson you need to be competitive and desperate from the start, especially a team like us that’s not bursting with first-round NHL talent,” Burke said. “We’re a solid team, top to bottom, but we need to be playing together, we need to be playing desperate.
“We’re a little snakebitten right now, we probably just have to simplify things a little bit, get more guys to the net, get more shots.
’Dog Biscuits: Team captain Johnny Corneil, Drew Hunter, Ian
Martin and Johnathan Schaefer did not dress for the IceDogs against Sudbury … Both teams were wearing dark uniforms Saturday night: Sudbury, blue tops and bottoms; Niagara, red jerseys with black pants … An elevator containing Batman, Captain America and a tiger carrying this reporter to
the press-box level was the safest in the city on the night of the IceDogs’ annual Halloween game … Performing the national anthem in English as well as in sign language was the choir from Senator Gibson Public School in Beamsville … A ringette game featuring the St. Catharines Comets and a parade of Halloween costumes took place in the first and second intermissions, respectively.