The IceDogs took to the ice today attempting to snap out of their current six game losing skid. IceDogs goaltender Adrian Volpe looked to give the Dogs a spark as he made his first start of his OHL career in place of Andrew Loverock. Prior to today, Volpe had only seen five minutes of game action. Volpe locked a little shaky to begin the game giving up a goal on the first shot he faced. But in fairness to Volpe, Lane MacDermid of the Attack thread the needle beautifully to set up Joshua Domingues (4) who made a great move to put it by Volpe to give the Attack the 1-0 lead. The IceDogs answered right back however, as Alex Friesen intercepted an Attack clearing attempt and made the beautiful pass to Reggie Traccitto (3)who put it by Attack goaltender Scott Stajcer.

The game would stay tied until Chris DeSousa (5) of the IceDogs put his team ahead at the 7:39 mark of the second period. DeSousa was the beneificiary of a defensive miscue by the Attack which ended up giving him his fifth goal of the season. Volpe kept the IceDogs in the lead, stopping all eighteen of the Owen Sound shots he faced in the period. DeSousa (6) ended the period on a high note, as he pounced on the rebound off of a Luca Caputi shot from the circle, putting it by Stajcer with four seconds to play in the second.

Both teams came out of the dressing room fired up, and apparently playing with a chip on their shoulders. Matt Corrente of the IceDogs and Milan Doczy of the Attack got into a spirited scrap early in the third period which resulted in both players being assessed a five minute fighting penalty. After a hard hit by Barry Sanderson of the IceDogs on an Attack player, Paul Bezzo of the Attack jumped Sanderson and this led to a scrap between many of the IceDogs and the Attack players. When it was all said and done, Corrente was assessed his second five minute fighting penalty of the game along with a game misconduct and Paul Bezzo of Owen Sound was also assessed the fighting penalty and a game misconduct.

After a brief delay, to sort out all of the penalties, the game got back under way. An Owen Sound penalty put the Dogs on the power play, and they capitalized as Swift, Caputi and Foreman (9) connected on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play to put the IceDogs up 4-1. The Attack tried to make things interesting, as they cut the IceDogs lead to two, on a goal by Scott Tregunna (8) at the 18:04 mark of the third. But this is as close as the Attack would get, as the IceDogs escaped with the 4-2 victory.

The three stars of the game were all members of the IceDogs and deservedly so. Chris DeSousa played a fantastic overall game for the Dogs scoring two goals and was named the first star of the game. Adrian Volpe was solid in net for the IceDogs, stopping 40 of the 42 Owen Sound shots he faced, good enough to be named the second star of the game. Rounding out the three stars, was IceDogs captain Michael Swift who collected two assists on the night.

With the win the IceDogs snap their season high six game losing streak and improve their record for the season to 13-12-0-1. It was a much needed win for the IceDogs, and hopefully something they can build on in the games to come. The next action for the IceDogs will come Thursday November 29th as they host the Erie Otters at 7:30 pm at the Gatorade Garden City Complex. The Dogs will then travel to Erie for the back end of a home and home with the Otters, before returning home to face the Ottawa 67s on Sunday December 2nd at 2:00 pm. Fans are reminded that tickets for these and all other IceDogs home games can be purchased at the Customer Service Desk at the Pen Centre or by visiting www.niagaraicedogs.net.

GO-DOGS-GO!

Brianne Whitty
Media Relations