Feb. 11 Weekend Sports Ticker: IceDogs winless in seven; Catholic Classic; River Lions come up short

Danial Singer netted a hat trick Saturday in Sarnia. Photo: OHL IMAGES

The Niagara IceDogs are mired in their longest slump of the season.

The IceDogs dropped a pair of games this weekend and are now winless in seven games. They last won Jan. 27 at Sudbury.

Niagara lost 2-0 at Windsor Sunday afternoon after dropping a 5-4 decision in overtime Saturday night in Sarnia.

The IceDogs are now 26-19-5-3 and trail the Barrie Colts by five points for first place in the Central Division.

“It shows why every game is so important over the course of a season, so when you do hit stretches like this, hopefully you had put some wins in the bank,” Niagara coach Billy Burke said. “This stings. Everyone wanted this one.”

Stephen Dhillon and Michael DiPietro squared off in a goaltender’s duo Sunday, each making some key saves and keeping the game scoreless through two periods.

“We wanted to make sure we played a strong game and we did,” Burke added. “They weren’t cheating or anything. They did everything we wanted them to. It was another hot goalie but we have to find a way to get a few in.

“We just have to keep working and dig ourselves out of this.”

The Spirtfires finally broke the deadlock halfway through the third when Curtis Douglas ripped a wrist shot past Dhillon from the face-off circle.

The IceDogs spent the final two minutes of the game killing off a penalty and pulled Dhillon in an attempt to tie the score but Mathew MacDougall scored into an empty net with 21 seconds to play.

Sting 5 IceDogs 4 OT

Saturday in Sarnia, the IceDogs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to pick up a point.

The Sting took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Jordan Ernst before adding two more in the second by Drake Rymsha and Anthony Salinitri.

The IceDogs began their comeback with a goal by Johnny Corneil less than a minute into the third. Danial Singer then added a pair to tie the game at 3-3 before Jordan Kyrou put Sarnia back up by one. Singer then completed the hat trick with his 25th of the season at 19:26 to send the game into overtime.

Cam Dineen won it for the Sting with 33 seconds remaining. Earlier in the OT Jonathan Ang was stopped on a penalty shot attempt at 1:11 by Dhillon.

The IceDogs are home to Owen Sound Friday and in Barrie Saturday.

CATHOLIC CLASSIC

Notre Dame’s run in the 43rd All-Ontario Catholic Classic Basketball Tournament came to a conclusion Saturday morning with a 68-60 loss to the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders of Oakville in the consolation semifinals.

Braidon Moore paced the Irish with 23 points and Andrew Zezela and Brandon Graziani netted 10. Also scoring for Notre Dame were Rovenston Jean-Baptiste (8), Austin Cooper (4), Jesse Raso (2) and Anthony Cimino (1).

On Friday, Saint Paul and Saint Francis lost in the championship quarter-finals and Denis Morris was defeated in the consolation quarter-finals.

In the championship game, the St. Michael’s College Blue Raiders of Toronto built quarter leads of 16-13, 37-34 and 56-49 on the way to a 68-58 victory over the Cardinal Newman Cardinals go Hamilton.

It was the fourth straight Catholic Classic title for the Blue Raiders and their sixth in the past seven years. Leading scorers for St. Michael’s were Inaki Alvarez (16), Kyle Duke-Simpson (15) and Jack Foran (13). Top scorers for Cardinal Newman were Matthieu Kitenge (12), Tyler Bridgeman (12) and Nick Rakas (11). Rakas scored 40 points for Cardinal Newman in a win over St. Francis Friday night.

In the consolation final, the Holy Trinity Titans from Oakville recorded a 60-44 victory over the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders.

Leading scorers for the Titans were Dante Richards (17) and Jadis Brooks-Reynolds (12). Replying for the Titans were Michael Juricic (19) and Brendan Kerr (10).

RIVER LIONS LOSE IN WINDSOR

The Niagara River Lions came up just short as they dropped a 112-110 decision to the Windsor Express in a National Basketball League of Canada game at Windsor Saturday.

The loss drops Niagara’s record to 12-15.

After falling behind 22-19 after one quarter, the River Lions took over in the second quarter and built a 57-51 lead at the half. The game was tied 83-83 after three quarters.

The River Lions had eight players in double digits led by Carl Hall’s 24 points. Devonta Pollard added 13 and Sam Muldrow 12. C.J. Aiken and Guillaume Boucard had 11 each while Jaylon Tate, Connor Wood and Adam Klie chipped in with 10 apiece.

Erik Parker had 21 for the Express while former River Lion Logan Stutz netted 16 for Windsor.

The River Lions are home to Windsor Thursday.

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