Brandon Caputo
@BCaputo_AGM
Game 2 between the Niagara IceDogs and Barrie Colts was forced to wait three days due to a scheduling conflict at the Sadlon Arena but was not short of storylines.
As a result of disciplinary sanctions imposed by the Ontario Hockey League, Niagara were forced to sit every player for at least one period during the series in which they got over with as soon as possible in game two. Niagara played two forward lines and a pairing and a half of defenceman for a period and switched for the second period, resulting in mixed line combinations and out of whack ice-time for the first two periods.
Niagara started Finn Moffett for the first period, having been called up from the Fort Erie Meteors of the GOJHL to make his first OHL playoff appearance, while Owen Flores sat the first period and backup goaltender Matthew Humphries was scratched entirely to avoid any injury scenario between the two goalies needing to sit.
The IceDogs were able to weather the storm in the opening period with their starting goalie on the bench as Finn Moffett stopped 13 of 16 in his one period of action while defenceman Matthew Virgilio actually opened up the scoring for Niagara 24 seconds into the contest. Two of the three goals being from Barrie's star forward Anthony Romani.
In period two, Owen Flores entered the IceDogs net and stopped 19 of 21 Colts shots that were coming early and often on him in a tough spot to enter the game. Jelsma and Hemming with the goals for Barrie, giving them a 5-1 lead heading to the final period.
In the final frame the momentum began to turn as Niagara would score two goals in a three minute span, both from Ivan Galiyanov who returned heroically after being on the receiving end of a hard open-ice hit from Kashawn Aitcheson which caused him to leave the game for a short time.
Mathieu Paris would add the third goal on an IceDogs powerplay redirecting the Ryan Roobroeck, his third point of the period before Ethan Czata found Andrei Loshko for the game-tying goal at the 13:06 mark of the period, completing the four-goal comeback to even it up 5-5.
A storybook ending would not be in the cards for Niagara as Anthony Romani would complete the hat-trick performance with only 1:10 remaining in regulation, before Beau Jelsma added the empty-netter to seal it for a 7-5 final.
Owen Flores stopped 32 of 35 in his relief appearance while Sam Hillebrandt allowed five goals on 28 shots but did enough to come away with the victory.
Game 3 will go tonight on the quick back-to-back at Meridian Centre, Niagara's first home playoff game since April of 2019 with Barrie leading the series 2-0.
