IceDogs Battle Otters
January 29, 2009
The Niagara IceDogs hosted the Erie Otters in Ontario Hockey League action at the Gatorade Garden City Complex on Thursday night.
The Otters jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period on goals from Mitch Daulton, Shaun Szydlowski and Zack Torquato.
IceDogs goaltender Jeremy Smith made some nice saves but was shaken after being taken down by an Otters forward.
“Everything’s all right. I just tweeked [my arm] a little,” said Smith, who gave way to goaltender Mark Visentin to start the second. “So far, the experience here has been great. The guys are good and the fans are amazing.”
In the second period, Niagara’s Alex Friesen scored a power-play goal after a Matt Maione shoot-in, bounced off the end boards to Friesen in the centre slot.
“It was a good dump in, and we know the boards back there are lively,” said Niagara-on-the-Lake native Friesen, who also was awarded the Molson Third Star-of-the-Game. “I got a good forecheck in, and the puck bounced right to me.”
Two minutes into the third period, Niagara’s Chris DeSousa netted his team-leading 25th goal, after the Otters defender misplayed a bouncing puck. DeSousa scooped up the puck and broke in on the goalie to beat him with a great shot to the left-hand corner. Assists went to Freddie Hamilton and Patrick Lee.
Erie had been taken penalties all night, and the IceDogs were looking to tie the game with a power-play opportunity a minute later, but a bad bounce gave Erie’s Ryan O’Reilly a breakaway and he capitalized to put his team up 4-2.
Niagara continued to pressure the Otters, and this forced Erie into taking another penalty at 9:05. Niagara looked to score but had two goals disallowed in the first minute of the power play. One goal was waved off due to a referee’s stoppage of play and a second goal was deemed to have been kicked in by Niagara’s DeSousa.
Then, moments later, an IceDogs blocked shot bounced to Erie’s Brandon Biggers, who broke away and scored another Erie short-handed goal.
“I think our power play struggled a little bit today,” said Friesen. “But, we knew coming into the game that they have the best penalty kill in the league. We knew we would get pressured but we had some funny bounces.”
Niagara’s Marco Insam scored on an assist from Andrew Agozzino with 33 seconds left, but the final was 5-3 for the Otters.
“Let’s chalk this up to one of those games where we played a little bit of a bad game, but we could of won this game,” said Niagara IceDogs Head Coach Mario Cicchillo. “We left Smitty out to dry in the first period, and gave them a lot of scoring chances. Mark [Visentin] played good for us when we put him in.”
“We’ll cut some tape and go over our special teams. Our power play has to be better. These guys are young men who will be pros one day. They’ll come back to the rink and be ready to go tomorrow night against Sudbury.”
“It’s a big weekend for us,” said Friesen. “We got two division rivals (Sudbury Wolves and Barrie Colts) who are close in the standings. Every point counts and we know that.”
So the IceDogs are off to Sudbury for a big match-up against the Wolves on Friday night, and the game will be available to all fans who tune into 1220chsc.ca.
Niagara’s own Chuck Lafleur and Ted Lehman will broadcast the 7:30 p.m. game on a live webcast from the Sudbury Community Arena.
Just go back to the Niagara IceDogs home page and click on ICEDOGS GAMEDAY – LISTEN LIVE – CLICK HERE to hear Chuck and Ted call all the action and give you the play-by-play breakdown. Their pre-game show starts at 7:20 p.m., so tune in and cheer on your IceDogs in their 2009 playoff drive.
GO-DOGS-GO!!!
J. Cassidy
Media Relations
The Otters jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period on goals from Mitch Daulton, Shaun Szydlowski and Zack Torquato.
IceDogs goaltender Jeremy Smith made some nice saves but was shaken after being taken down by an Otters forward.
“Everything’s all right. I just tweeked [my arm] a little,” said Smith, who gave way to goaltender Mark Visentin to start the second. “So far, the experience here has been great. The guys are good and the fans are amazing.”
In the second period, Niagara’s Alex Friesen scored a power-play goal after a Matt Maione shoot-in, bounced off the end boards to Friesen in the centre slot.
“It was a good dump in, and we know the boards back there are lively,” said Niagara-on-the-Lake native Friesen, who also was awarded the Molson Third Star-of-the-Game. “I got a good forecheck in, and the puck bounced right to me.”
Two minutes into the third period, Niagara’s Chris DeSousa netted his team-leading 25th goal, after the Otters defender misplayed a bouncing puck. DeSousa scooped up the puck and broke in on the goalie to beat him with a great shot to the left-hand corner. Assists went to Freddie Hamilton and Patrick Lee.
Erie had been taken penalties all night, and the IceDogs were looking to tie the game with a power-play opportunity a minute later, but a bad bounce gave Erie’s Ryan O’Reilly a breakaway and he capitalized to put his team up 4-2.
Niagara continued to pressure the Otters, and this forced Erie into taking another penalty at 9:05. Niagara looked to score but had two goals disallowed in the first minute of the power play. One goal was waved off due to a referee’s stoppage of play and a second goal was deemed to have been kicked in by Niagara’s DeSousa.
Then, moments later, an IceDogs blocked shot bounced to Erie’s Brandon Biggers, who broke away and scored another Erie short-handed goal.
“I think our power play struggled a little bit today,” said Friesen. “But, we knew coming into the game that they have the best penalty kill in the league. We knew we would get pressured but we had some funny bounces.”
Niagara’s Marco Insam scored on an assist from Andrew Agozzino with 33 seconds left, but the final was 5-3 for the Otters.
“Let’s chalk this up to one of those games where we played a little bit of a bad game, but we could of won this game,” said Niagara IceDogs Head Coach Mario Cicchillo. “We left Smitty out to dry in the first period, and gave them a lot of scoring chances. Mark [Visentin] played good for us when we put him in.”
“We’ll cut some tape and go over our special teams. Our power play has to be better. These guys are young men who will be pros one day. They’ll come back to the rink and be ready to go tomorrow night against Sudbury.”
“It’s a big weekend for us,” said Friesen. “We got two division rivals (Sudbury Wolves and Barrie Colts) who are close in the standings. Every point counts and we know that.”
So the IceDogs are off to Sudbury for a big match-up against the Wolves on Friday night, and the game will be available to all fans who tune into 1220chsc.ca.
Niagara’s own Chuck Lafleur and Ted Lehman will broadcast the 7:30 p.m. game on a live webcast from the Sudbury Community Arena.
Just go back to the Niagara IceDogs home page and click on ICEDOGS GAMEDAY – LISTEN LIVE – CLICK HERE to hear Chuck and Ted call all the action and give you the play-by-play breakdown. Their pre-game show starts at 7:20 p.m., so tune in and cheer on your IceDogs in their 2009 playoff drive.
GO-DOGS-GO!!!
J. Cassidy
Media Relations
