St. Catharines, ON -
JUSTIN NICHOLS would get his 2nd career OHL regular season start on Thursday when the Hounds opened their latest 3-game roadtrip. For the Hounds 1st-year netminder the game came in his hometown as the Hounds met the IceDogs for the first time this season.
The Hounds came out of the gates pressuring and just forty-nine seconds in a turnover at the Niagara line saw DARNELL NURSE with the early scoring chance on IceDogs netminder Christopher Festarini.
Niagara would be kept shotless in the opening three minutes of play before they would open the scoring.
At the 5:14 mark, while shorthanded, Brett Ritchie and Ryan Strome took advantage of a 2-on-1 before scoring the first goal of the game.
JARED MCCANN would quickly respond for the Hounds. After CHRIS BUONOMO and SERGEY TOLCHINSKY won a battle along the wall, Tolchinsky found McCann to the top of the face-off circle to the left of the Niagara goal. The Hounds centreman put a laser overtop Festarini for a 1-1 tie.
Before the game was ten minutes old, the Hounds found themselves shorthanded two men, but the early penalty killing kept the game even.
Late in the period, Aaron Haydon scored his first of the year chipping the puck past the Hounds defense before firing the goal home, then Strome finished off a 3-on-2 wiring a shot from the left circle and the IceDogs led 3-1 after twenty minutes.
The Hounds would start the second period with 1:55 on the powerplay but the man advantage couldn't bring them any closer.
NICHOLS came up big midway through the period with back-to-back stops including one on Carter Verhaeghe as the Hounds looked for more offense.
With just over four minutes remaining the IceDogs furthered their lead when Trevor Petersen deposited the third opportunity behind Nichols for a 4-1 lead after two periods.
The Hounds were outshot 29-23 following forty-minutes.
Midway through the third period Hounds forward LANDON SCHILLER was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head and Niagara would go on the powerplay.
On the ensuing man advantage Steven Shipley's right point shot found it's way through a crowd with the low drive and a larger deficit for the Hounds.
A last minute penalty would see the Hounds end the game on the powerplay, but with a four goal deficit they couldn't pull any closer in dropping their opening game of the roadtrip en-route to a 5-1 defeat.
With the loss the Hounds record fell to 7 wins and 7 losses, and for the first time this season the team sits at a .500 record.
They'll return to action on Friday Night - October 26th, with their lone visit to the Erie Insurance Arena against the Otters.
Game time is 7 p.m. and you can hear all the action live on Rock 101 beginning with the Bay Mills Resort & Casinos Pre-Game show at 6:30
