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LATEST UPDATES
(More latest news
here)
Jan.19 - Dougie gets 10 games
for
being taller than other players.
Jan.12 - Toronto Sun video clip on the OHL
trade deadline
(thanks hockey123)
Jan.11 - With the addition of Oleksiak, the IceDogs now have *5* Team
Canada players on their roster. Yes, HALF of the OHL players on the
World Junior Team Canada lineup were IceDogs.
Jan.11 - IceDogs locked in and loaded:
read article here.
Jan.11 - OHL: Championship or bust; IceDogs up ante by adding
Oleksiak: No team has ever suited up five members of Team Canada at
once, so that should provide some idea of what's on the line for the Niagara
IceDogs. Coach-GM Marty Williamson, whose team has not run away with the
Ontario Hockey League's Eastern Conference as much as everyone giddily
anticipated in the preseason, made an 8-for-1 deal Monday for hulking
6-foot-7 defenceman Jamie Oleksiak.
Read more here.
Jan.10 - IceDogs make big trade for defenseman in getting
Oleksiak from
Saginaw.
Jan.5 - Congratulations Team Canada! Our 4 IceDogs on the team
helped Canada to a Bronze medal finish at the IIHF World Junior Hockey
Championship, defeating Finland 4-0 with Visentin grabbing the shutout and
being named player of the game!!
Dec.24 - Merry Christmas !!
Dec.15 - Huge win for the Dogs! The IceDogs defeated Erie 7-0,
with Agozzino racking up 5 points (2G/3A), Pacan 4 points (2G/2A), Broderic
Kelly netting his first OHL goal, and Festerini collecting his first career
shutout. Way to go IceDogs!!
Dec.14 - All 4 IceDogs make Team Canada! Congratulations to
Freddie and Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Strome, and Mark Visentin - all 4 have
solidified positions on Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Hockey
Championship!
Dec.8 - Dougie Hamilton signs contract with the Boston Bruins -
congratulations Dougie!
Dec.5 - City council approves $50M for new arena: An arena to be
used for hosting entertainment, sports, shows, etc, was approved with a 9-3
vote in favor of the new facility. One councilor did not vote due to
conflicts of interest, councilors Kushner, Washuta, and Williamson opposed
the new facility, the other councilors and the mayor voted in favor.
Councilor Burch suggested a u-shaped facility to cut down on construction
costs, and suggested it would hold between 4500-5300 seats. Lots of
talk in the
arena talk forum over this and everything leading up to it.
Dec.3 - Please bring a can of non-perishable food to tonight's game vs.
Barrie!
CYO will be
holding a food drive in support of their Coach4Food program so fans are
encouraged to bring a non-perishable food donation to deposit in the bins on
their way in to the game. Thank you!!!
Nov.23 - No new arena for city, IceDogs leaving? There's a new
group of people who wish that this city remain stagnant and are opposed to
an entertainment facility being built. This anti-arena group is made
up of only a handful of (mostly seniors) people, yet they are being so vocal
with out city council, they alone could destroy all the work done to
building a modern entertainment facility in this city. If you would
like the IceDogs to stay, and want a new arena to watch them in (as well as
well watching a variety of other events) and haven't told your local
councilor we need a new arena, then shame on you. This is NOT one of
those things were 'other' people will do the speaking out for you. YOU
need to email your councilor and tell him/her that this city needs a new
arena. Not just for the IceDogs, but to attract all sorts of other
sporting and non-sporting events. If you visit this site and sit back
passively, and all the councilors here from is this anti-arena group, and
the Dogs leave town, then you get what you deserve. Yes these are
harsh words, but someone who doesn't let their politicians know what
they want, doesn't deserve what others are fighting for. Only a small
handful of people are actively writing their councilor on this subject.
If you are one of them, then kudos to you, and thank you. You have to
KEEP writing. On the other hand, if all you've done is read articles
and put in a lot of hope, and haven't spent the measly 5 mins it takes to
write an email, you can kiss this team goodbye after the end of this season.
Council NEEDS TO HERE FROM YOU NOW. They're voting on it very soon.
Email address of your local councilor (write to your own, or write them
all!) can be
found here. Sitting back passively *WILL* result in the arena plan
being squashed, and the Dogs leaving town.
Nov.6 - How a new arena could change the city?
Here's
first-hand words from a city that recently went through it!
Nov.8 - Kuhnhackle gets 20 game suspension for clean hit:
Discussion
here.
Nov.4 - Congratulations to Dougie Hamilton for being named defenceman
of the month!
Nov.2 - Dogs acquire Kuhnhackl from Windsor:
More here.
Oct.4 - Ryan Strome signs three year
entry-level deal
with the NY Islanders.
Sep.24 - Alex Friesen has been sent to the AHL.
Read about it
here. Chances are much larger now, that his time in an IceDogs
uniform has come to an end.
Sep.18 - Dougie Hamilton playing with Zdeno Chara at the Boston
Bruins camp.
Read all about it.
Sep.9 - Dogs already ranked 2nd in
CHL
pre-season listing and
this blog has us ranked 1st in the East.
Sep.1 - Some photos of the Black & White game from training camp are
online here.
Sep.1 - Hockey Night iN St. Catharines photos
online here.
Jun.25 - Theoret drafted to Islanders: Mitchell Theoret joins
Ryan Strome in being drafted by the NY Islanders. Theoret was selected
by NY in the 7th round. Congrats! (thanks Bleechers for the
info)
Jun.25 - Former IceDog Andrew Shaw drafted 139th overall by the Chicago
Blackhawks. (thanks 61jr)
Jun.25 - Former IceDog Andrew Fritsch selected in the 6th round by
Phoenix. (thanks ckg927)
Jun.24 - Strome to Islanders (4th pick) and D.Hamilton to Boston (9th pick):
Congratulations to Ryan Strome who was selected in the first round of the
NHL draft, going 5th overall to the NY Islanders, and to Dougie Hamilton who
was chosen 9th by the Boston Bruins.
Talk here!
Jun.17 - Goalie of the Year: Mark Visentin: Mark
Visentin of the Niagara IceDogs was presented with the OHL Goaltender of the
Year Award at the OHL Awards Ceremony at the Hockey Hall of Fame on
Wednesday June 8, 2011. Posted: June 09, 2011.
Video link
Jun.17 - Bobby Smith Trophy: Dougie Hamilton: Dougie Hamilton
of the Niagara IceDogs was presented with the Bobby Smith Trophy as the
OHL's Scholastic Player of the Year at the OHL Awards Ceremony at the
Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Wednesday June 8. Posted: June
09, 2011.
Video link
Jun.10 - ICEDOGS TRADE SCHWINDT + PICKS FOR BEUKEBOOM:
Soo Greyhounds GM Kyle Dubas completed a trade this afternoon with the
Eastern Conference’s Niagara IceDogs. In the deal the Hounds sent
19-year old defenseman BROCK BEUKEBOOM
to the IceDogs in exchange for 19-year old defenseman
MIKE SCHWINDT, Oshawa’s 2nd
Round pick in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection, Barrie’s 2nd Round pick in
the 2014 OHL Priority Selection (conditional) and Niagara’s 5th Round pick
in the 2014 OHL Priority Selection (conditional).
Article here discussion by Dogs fans
here.
May.25 - NHL.com article on
Dougie Hamilton

May.9 - St. Catharines council votes in favor of going forth with
constructing a new arena (aka 'entertainment complex') "in principle".
What does that mean? Well if you don't know then you're like many of
the councilors, who needed it explained to them by a somewhat frustrated Len
Stack (and thank Gawd he did). What it means is that they are willing
to cover funds necessary to research the specific information required to
continue on with the project. What the next step is, is itself, a
confusion. Many councilors were having a hard time coming to a
decision because a lot what happens in the 'moving forward' process is
dependant on what site is chosen for the new building. Current
location (of the Garden City / Rex Stimers arenas) or the lower level
parking lot (aka. lower lot). Those in charge of granting P3 funds
(federal government money) will undoubtedly want to know something as basic
as "well where the heck are you planning on building the thing".
Building on the current site brings 2 major problems: right off the
bat, where are the IceDogs going to play during construction time? And
after it's built - what about parking? There's not enough right now
for 3,000 let alone 5,000. The city could 'acquire' adjacent land to
use as parking. The lower lot, while having TONS of positives, seems
to have one negative: the ground underneath is somewhat unstable.
Sure, it would be a bad idea to build a rink where at the end of the first
year, a player could tap the puck at one end of the rink, and without
assistance, GAIN SPEED as it continues towards the other end. Once
large structures are built level, it's nice for them to stay that way.
One would think this is all overcome simply by digging a bit deeper to find
more stable soil. Apparently it's such a task that it would
significantly raise the construction costs. The advantages of the
lower lot site though, are huge. It clears up our eyesore of a skyline
(as our downtown is seen by the 406), there's tons of open space already
there. It puts the arena right in the same area as the new arts
center, it's closer to the "nicer" area of St. Paul where restaurants are,
there's a multi-level parking garage close by, it's directly off the
highway. Heck, knock out the St. Paul St. buildings on that side up to
William St. and they could even put part of the arena RIGHT ON St. Paul St.!
Of course, that's easy for one person with no logistical background to say.
"Sure just start knocking down existing buildings...". Anway.
Most of the councilors agreed that this city does in fact need a new
entertainment facility, but once numbers (ie: money) was talked about, many
got cold feet. They could not foresee that it would be more harmful
for the city NOT to build this. Any councilors backing out of this
project are also showing they're not committed to making downtown work.
There's been a downtown 'revitalization' project going on for... heck,
forever. The simple fact is, there's nothing there that will put large
groups of people in the area at any one time. Well, that is if you
don't count large groups of drunks ever Friday/Saturday night. 5,000
people twice a week all winter long for hockey, and 6,000 or more for
concerts year-round; that's a nice group of people to be having on a regular
basis.

May.9 - St. Catharines council to vote on new arena today. This
is a VERY important event taking place tonight. They'll be voting on
whether or not to officially go forward with the project. It should be
kept in mind that this is NOT just a hockey arena. The entire region
needs such a facility to host a wide variety of entertainment, including
concerts, trade shows, home shows, sporting shows, figure skating, curling,
etc. The city has never had a mid-sized building to host such events.
Frankly, it's somewhat amazing this project wasn't deemed necessary DECADES
ago. But as the saying goes, better late then never.
May.3 -
Hamilton and Strome Invited to NHL Scouting
Combine: Niagara IceDogs forward Ryan Strome and defenceman Dougie
Hamilton have both been invited to the NHL Scouting Combine, taking place in
Toronto from May 30 until June 4.
APR.29 - Important News About New Arena - Vote Will
Take Place May 9 - City council will be voting on May 9th to
proceed with the hiring of an arena management company. The company would
act as a consultant while the next steps are being completed and then would
manage the new arena if it is approved. This vote is EXTREMELY important.
Read
more here to see how you can help!!!
APR.28 - Visentin named OHL Goaltender of the Year !
Read here!
APR.26 - Thanks for another great season IceDogs and our best wishes
to the overagers who have played their last games in the OHL: Wilson,
Archibald, and Billingsley.
APR.15 - The webmaster is back from Cuba nursing a brutally itchy
sunburn but will be at the arena tonight to hopefully watch the Dogs beat
out Oshawa in round 2 of the 2010/11 OHL playoffs. The winner of this
series will advance to play Mississauga in the conference finals. Game
time 7PM. GO DOGS GO!
APR.1 - Congratulations to the IceDogs for sweeping Brampton in round
1 of the 2010/11 playoffs. Our offense was firing all cylinders and
Visentin was solid in net as we outscored Brampton 18-3 over the four game
series. Next victim: winner of Oshawa/Kingston series.
MAR.21 - ICEDOGS TO FACE BATTALION IN 1ST ROUND: Schedule:
Game 1 - Thursday, March 24 at Niagara, 7pm Game 2 - Sunday, March 27th at
Brampton, 2pm Game 3 - Tuesday, March 29th at Niagara, 7pm Game 4 -
Thursday, March 31st at Brampton, 7pm Game 5 - Saturday, April 2nd at
Niagara, 7pm* Game 6 - Sunday, April 3rd at Brampton, 2pm* Game 7 - Tuesday,
April 5th at Niagara, 7pm* * - if necessary
MAR.19 - DOGS FINISH SEASON WITH A BANG! The IceDogs didn't
just defeat Kingston 8-4 - Jenkins also scored his first OHL goal, and Strome had
4 points allowing him to climb to FIRST PLACE in the OHL point scoring race!
Thanks to all the fans who gave Billingsley loud cheers during the pre-game
festivities, and for all the fans who came out with their signs in support
of him. And thank you IceDogs (the team and entire organization) for a
TREMENDOUS season! Lets carry on the energy all the way through the
playoffs!!
MAR.19 - DON'T BODYCHECK! The recent suspension to Billingsley
has PROVED that the OHL will suspend a player for what even the OHL said was
a CLEAN HIT. Simply due to the fact that the hitter came into contact
with the hitty's head, he was suspended (for 10 games). ANYONE WHO HAS
EVER PLAYED CONTACT SPORTS OR WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT PHYSICS knows that a
player going in to throw a hit CAN NOT determine, upon the point of impact,
what body parts of his body are going to collide with what parts of the
opponent's. Billingsley's contact to Prince's head was completely
accidental (and Prince was even more at fault for the contact to the head
than Billingsley - being down low cutting through center, head looking down
at the ice, faulty chin strap) - so since players are now being suspended
for accidental contact of parts of THEIR body with parts of their OPPONENTS
body... the only way to ensure you won't be suspended for accidental
contact, IS NOT TO BODYCHECK. There's always the chance that your
opponent will put himself in a position for his own head to get hit, causing
the YOU to be suspended. Can anyone else see where this is going?
Players DRAWING hit to the head penalties? Don't take the chance of
the OHL suspending you IceDogs - DON'T HIT !! You can't determine what
body parts will collide with what after impact. Every time you body
check you're rolling the dice on a lengthy suspension. It required the
lea gue to replay the hit FRAME BY FRAME IN SLOW MOTION to determine it was a
hit to the head - HOW THE HECK DO THEY EXPECT PLAYERS TO KNOW THAT WILL
HAPPEN, AT FULL SPEED, AHEAD OF THE TIME!? I'm not saying don't
suspend players for hitting to the head WHEN INTENTION was there. By
all means, throw them out of the league when it's proved the intended to
injure or go after the head. But for accidental collisions like this,
especially when the opponent set himself up to be hit in the head, and added
to the injury by having a chinstrap that allowed his helmet to come off?
It's just not worth the risk for an OHL player to through bodychecks
anymore. Don't do it guys, don't do it.
MAR.19 - WHY DOES HOCKEY ALLOW BODY ARMOR TO BE PASSED OFF AS PADDING?
Has anyone thought that injuries may be caused by ROCK HARD ELBOW PADS and
ROCK HARD SHOULDER PADS? Back in the years of when this webmaster
played hockey, PADS WERE *PADDED* ! It was like guys were wearing hard
pillows on their shoulders. What players have now is not much less
than metal armor. There's no cushion when your head comes into contact
with it - you might as well be smacked with a baseball bat. Don Cherry
has even commented numerous times in the past, that it's this rock hard
equipment adding to the injuries. There's 2 people hit in a bodycheck,
so why is the padding created to protect only one of them? So why
isn't the OHL banning pads that aren't actually made up only of PADDING?
It may be someone's guess that money talks.
MAR.18 - OHL HITTING RULES ARE THE REASONS FOR INJURIES: Checking
from behind, hitting to the head / head checking penalties have done nothing
except teach players to shrug off their what used to be natural sense of
defense. When players used to go into the corners, they'd take a look
first to see if someone on the other team was coming in to plaster them.
When they skated with the puck, they'd do so with their eyes up. Now,
they're skaing with their heads down, going into corners blindly, and have
given up their defensive awareness, because they think the rules will
protect them from being hit. It would be a good guess that there's
MORE head injuries to players now, than there was 10 or 20 yrs ago.
These new rules are causing our players to be carefree out there, and
they're getting hurt because of it.
MAR.16 - Billingsley gone for rest of season and possibly first 2 rounds
of playoffs due to laying a *perfect* bodycheck on Prince of the Ottawa
67's. Prince's chin strap came off and he hit his head on the ice.
Sure Billingsley's shoulder came into contact with Prince's upper body, but
their entire torso's connected flush! And Billingsley is taller than
Prince, and Prince was skating low WITH HIS HEAD DOWN WITH A LOOSE CHIN
STRAP! PERFECT TEXTBOOK BODY CHECK BILLINGSLEY - DON'T LET THE
SUSPENSION GET YOU DOWN. The clowns that
are in charge of running this league are destroying it. Er... should
read: HAVE destroyed it. These rules in place are
intended to do nothing more than keep players from hitting each other AT
ALL. It's meant to get the players second guessing EVERY TIME they
think about hitting, which will just result in no hitting.
MAR.12 - Congratulations Ryan Strome on the game winning goal in
overtime last night and getting his 100th and 101st points of the season!
(Dogs beat Ottawa, in Ottawa, 3-2 in OT). @ Kingston Sunday afternoon.
MAR.12 - IceDogs match 2007/08 season # of Wins: With their OT win
in Ottawa last night, the Niagara IceDogs have tied their record for most
wins (42) in a season, first set by the inaugural 2007/08 team during their
first year in Niagara.
MAR.10 - IceDogs own best player voting: Alex Friesen was
listed in 4 of the categories, and IceDogs players were listed the most,
being listed in 12 of the 16 categories of best players in the OHL, voted on
by coaches.
View the list here!
FEB.23 - Take the IceDogs bowling!
Pictures here!
FEB.21 - Some great IceDogs Family Day pictures
are up here! Re-cap from forum member Morticia: "Had
a great time today with the Ice Dogs. Family skate from 11-12:30 the the
skills competition from 1-3. Team Denise had a come from behind win over
Team Bill. Looks like Bill and his boys will be serving Denise and her boys
tomorrow night at the Mandarin. Awesome display of skills. Mitchell Theoret
was most accurate shooter.. 4 targets in 5 shots. Jay Wilson took home
hardest/fastest shot at 95/mph. Tim Billingsley took home the fanciest
breakaway shot with a trick puck on a string. Jesse Graham won fastest
skater. Im going from memory here, so if I have forgotten anyone, it wasnt
intentional..lol"
FEB.19 - IceDogs bench boss Marty Williamson suspended for 5 games:
Read all about it. And
this is what it was all about.
FEB.17 - IceDogs bus trip for the fans to Kingston, March 13:
Only 70 bucks to Kingston and back, and your ticket! Check out
Kingston's new arena!
Info here.
FEB.16 - Visentin wins CHL goalie award for second straight week:
TORONTO -- Niagara IceDogs netminder Mark Visentin won the Canadian Hockey
League's top goaltender award for the second consecutive week Tuesday.
Read TSN
article.
FEB.16 - At the top spot in the OHL Power Rankings this
week are the Niagara Icedogs (77.472), who have been
playing a virtual game of leapfrog with Mississauga for this top spot in
recent weeks.
Read more.
FEB.15 - Vizzy
named player of the week
FEB.15 - Strome for MVP?
Read here.

FEB.5 - The organist has arrived! You might have noticed there
has been less electropop/hiphop music being played at the games recently,
and more traditional hockey rock and roll and organ music. That's
because there's been a live organist!
Check out this
thread to speak to our in-house keyboardist!
FEB.5 - A playoff spot
has been clinched by the Dogs!
JAN.22 - Interesting fact: This year in 43 games, the dogs
already have
more points (61) than they did in all of last year! (60) [thanks
Dogpile]
JAN.20 - Lower prices on bus trips! Want to catch an IceDogs
away game or two?
Read here!
JAN.8 - Globe and Mail article on Visentin
here.
DEC.22 - IceDogs ranked 4th in the country!
Read all about it!
DEC.22 - Teddy Bear Toss
photos are online - thanks Lois!
DEC.21 - Visentin shines with a shutout in 8-0 win in World Junior pre-tourny
game:
Read all about it!
DEC.20 - IceDogs mid-term report card by forum regular B-Rad
is here!
DEC.15 - Visentin makes Team Canada! Yes, the IceDogs #1
goaltender has made Team Canada in the World Jr. Hockey Championship
tournament that is held ever year just after Christmas. This year it
is being held just down the QEW in Buffalo NY. Congratulations on
behalf of all IceDog fans to Mark Visentin for making the team!
DEC.11 - Reggie Traccitto on The Price Is Right! Yep, you read
correctly -
view it here!
DEC.8 - Dogs make trade with Barrie for Archibald: The
Niagara IceDogs have acquired overage forward Darren Archibald and
goaltender Dalton McGrath from the Barrie Colts in exchange for goaltender
John Chartrand, a 5th round pick in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection and a
10th round pick (Guelph's) in the 2011 OHL Priority Selection.
Read all about it.
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