Brandon Caputo
@BCaputo_AGM
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The IceDogs would make their only regular season trip of the 2024-25 Ontario Hockey League season to the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, home of the four-time OHL Champion Storm franchise.
Niagara came in well rested after a three in three weekend prior, finishing with a 6-4 win up in Brantford where Kevin He increased his team lead in goals to 16 and points with 28.
IceDogs came into the game with a 13-5 record, good enough for top spot in the Eastern Conference while the Storm came in at 5-10-1-1 on the season.
Philadelphia Flyers first round selection Jett Luchanko was recently sent back to the Storm, having dressed for 6 games and eclipsing 8 points during that time.
Owen Flores would get the start for Niagara, with a 10-3 record on the season while Brayden Gillespie would get the nod for Guelph, holding a 5-8 record.
NHL Affiliations: Cam Allen (WSH), Jett Luchanko (PHI), Vilmer Airiksson (VAN) for Guelph, Kevin He (WPG), Andrei Loshko (SEA) for Niagara.
Darcy Dewachter would take warmups as the extra defenceman while Nick Frasca was a healthy scratch, with Alex Assadourian, Mathieu Paris and Charlie Robertson all still labelled as week-to-week. Finn Moffett would be called upon to backup Owen Flores for Niagara.
GAME RECAP
After the IceDogs iced the puck in the opening minute of the game, Jett Luchanko would take the pass from Max Namestnikov off the face-off and beat Flores to open the scoring early for the home side.
Kevin He would cut down the right wing and somehow from a tough angle go overtop of Gillespie underneath the crossbar to even the game up at one apiece midway through the opening period.
Mike Levin would have a breakaway opportunity but wasn’t able to capitalize as Owen Flores was sensational for the road IceDogs stopping 21 of 22 shots going into the first intermission.
Just a few minutes into the middle period it was Mike Levin entering the zone on the right wing and finding a streaking Andrei Loshko who went glove side with a wrist shot from the slot that beat Gillespie for the Seattle Kraken prospect’s seventh goal of the season, giving Niagara a lead.
The IceDogs would turn it over in the neutral zone before Max Namestnikov takes the stretch pass for a breakaway, before going in on Flores and beating him on the backhand which evened the game up 2-2.
A wild sequence in the middle period as three goals were scored in a 33 second span, two by the Storm off of turnovers and lax defensive coverage, resulting in Ben Boudreau calling his timeout down 4-3.
Ethan Czata scored a goal in between the two Storm goals after cutting down the left wing and going overtop of Gillespie for the NHL Draft eligible’s fifth of the season.
Shortly after the tv timeout it was a point shot from Callum Cheynowski and a rebound that was buried in by Ryan Roobroeck for the star rookie’s 14th of the season, getting the game evened up at four apiece.
Despite being outshot 41-21, the IceDogs were even 4-4 after 40 minutes of play after six combined goals total by both teams in the period.
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The Storm would get the first goal of the third period as Will McFadden picked up a loose puck with speed and beat Virgilio to the net, going overtop of Flores in tight, giving the home side a 5-4 lead.
A point shot from the Storm takes a home bounce and lands right on the stick of Philadelphia Flyers first rounder Jett Luchanko who pots in his second of the night in the open cage, no chance for Owen Flores on the play and the lead extended to two.
After Jack Brauti went to the penalty box, it was Matthew Virgilio with a perfect bounce pass from his own end, which hit Ivan Galiyanov in stride, who went in backhand forehand beating Gillespie for a shorthanded goal and his third of the season to make it a 6-5 game.
Storm would score on the next shift, which was a common occurrence for them on this night after IceDogs goals and a two-goal lead once again.
Out of the television timeout it was Skvortsov taking the shot from the left circle with traffic that beats Flores for Guelph’s eight goal. On the ensuing shift, right after the stoppage all players on the ice get involved in the Niagara crease with punches and slashes being thrown in all directions for the better part of a minute as the officials tried to gain control of the situation.
Owen Flores would be given the early ending to his night along with Andrei Loshko, Kevin He, and Blair Scott as a result of the festivities. Finn Moffett would finish the game in Niagara’s crease as the home side Storm took it 8-5 in front of 4233 fans, outshooting the IceDogs by a 59-30 total.
IceDogs thought they scored their sixth goal but it was called back on an offside and the night would end with Ethan Czata adding to the list of late game misconducts, which will most likely leave Niagara shorthanded for Sunday's contest vs the Brantford Bulldogs back home at Meridian Centre.
POSTGAME REACTION
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IceDogs head coach Ben Boudreau spoke of what the difference was as they are starting to see common occurrences as a team with the types of losses that have been happening within their games.
“Well, the unsettling thing I think for us is now that we're starting to see trends,” Boudreau said. “We've had six regulation losses, four of them have been blowouts, and a lot of them happened in succession. Three goals in the second, four goals in the third. You go back to Owen Sound, they had four goals in the second period. Erie had six goals in the second period. Barrie had four goals in the third period.”
“We've got to find a way to stop the bleeding quick. And the times that we have done that, the times we have been resilient and kept pushing, we found a way to come back and win. But tonight, I didn't like our start from the first shot from the first shift making sure everybody was going. It was chasing the game from the very first shift.”
The head coach also spoke about his forwards needing to win more battles and buy in to the full team efforts more regularly, that has made them successful at times this season.
“To be honest, it's our forwards right now that aren't winning enough battles and we're not blocking enough shots,” Boudreau said. “I really think we're struggling with our depth up front, finding an identity.”
“Everybody wants to score goals, but we're looking for guys to take on a defensive role. You can't give up 20 shots in the first period on Saturday against Brantford and then practice defense all week and then give up 20 shots again in the first period and expect to win 42 shots later so that part is frustrating."
Niagara’s bench boss talked about how team structure is when they are at their best and when individualistic play starts to creep in to try and score, they overcompensate and pucks end up in the back of their net more regularly.
“The games that we have won, we've stemmed quite a bit of them from defense. And when we prioritize offense, we always end up bleeding on the back end,” Boudreau said. “Understanding who we are, how we need to play in order to win, I think is something our youth up front really struggle with.”
“Seven out of the twelve forwards in our lineup tonight are 17 years of age or younger so again practicing patience. We only lost one game no matter how bad that we lost it still is only one game yet to lose back-to-back games this season and we found a way to respond every single time so look at it as a glass half-full.”
"We took an absolute licking tonight but this team has been able to respond and I would expect nothing else from this group.”
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The head coach spoke about taking the timeout in them middle period after goals on three consecutive shifts (two by Guelph), a period in which six total goals were scored.
“We needed to find a way to manufacture some energy,” Boudreau said. “They go in and right off a neutral zone face-off loss. And we weren't in structure, the way we play went right out the window. And so unless we're playing as a cohesive group, it was tough.”
“I don't typically get as angry or red-faced or have a conniption that bad but I was trying to spark something. Unless we're all ready to play a team game and we're ready to all contribute at the same time, we can't have 50% of our guys going. So it's tough to point the finger at any one individual tonight just as an overall team. We didn't get it done.”
Boudreau finished off by commenting on five of his players getting into a full line scrum in the final half period of regulation, which resulted in multiple misconducts and penalties that could result in supplemental discipline before their game at home Sunday vs Brantford and leave Niagara even more undermanned for that contest.
“100% and you know when we get a chance to actually look at the video it wasn't anything that I would have really changed,” Boudreau said. “Kevin and Flores only jumped in to really help a defenseless teammate because there were no referees around. Their player was attacking him even on the ground and I would expect anybody to get in there and they didn't drop their gloves and start throwing punches."
He finished off by liking a response from his team, albeit 50 minutes too late down by three with under ten minutes to play in regulation.
“They just got in there to protect a teammate and that's something that you really want to see no matter how bad your team is down and out,” Boudreau finished. "This is coming off the heels on a slash right to the face from Namestnikov and they played a downright dirty and hungry game that I really, respect."
"To be honest, they wanted it more than we did. They're willing to put more in the line and they fought for it on home ice. That's a very worthy opponent, they were desperate two wins in their last ten games and got it done.”
ICEDOGS PLAYER OF THE GAME BROUGHT TO YOU BY HOCKEYSTICKMAN:
D NOAH VAN VLIET - 1 ASSIST +2 RATING
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