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OHL Saginaw Spirit

Preview: Spirit Look to Tame the Ice Dogs Friday Night

January 8, 2016 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


SAGINAW, MI - The Saginaw Spirit (17-18-2-1 37 points, 4th West Division) host the Niagara Ice Dogs (19-13-3-2 43 points, 3rd Central Division) on Friday night at The Dow Event Center at 7:05pm.

The Spirit have had great success at their home confines as of late, winning four of their last five contests at The Dow Event Center. Saginaw is coming off of a weekend split in which they beat Sault Ste. Marie last Saturday night 4-3 in overtime and dropped a 7-1 contest in Windsor last Sunday afternoon. The Spirit have turned their season around posting a 9-3-1-0 record in their last 13 games, moving them within two points of the third-placed Soo Greyhounds. The Spirit will welcome back star forward and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Mitchell Stephens on Friday night. Stephens has only appeared in nine of the team's 38 games due to injury and World Juniors.

The Ice Dogs have continue to stay in the hunt in the tightly contested Central Division despite losing goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (USA) and Aleksandar Mikulovich (Russia) to the World Junior Championship. Niagara is only four points back of the first-place Barrie Colts and one point back of second-place Mississauga with four games in hand on the Steelheads. The Ice Dogs are led by forwards Josh Ho-Sang and Jordan Maletta, as well as recently acquired overager Stephen Harper. The Ice Dogs have a stout defense core led by Carolina Hurricanes pick Josh Wesley, New York Rangers prospect Ryan Mantha, and St. Louis Blues pick Vince Dunn. The pipes are tended by fourth-year goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, who is a Carolina Hurricanes pick in 2014 and is coming off a bronze medal run with the United States in the 2016 World Junior Championship.

HEAD TO HEAD:

The out-of-conference opponents have met once this season at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines on December 10th. Both teams displayed premier goaltending by way of Evan Cormier of the Spirit and Alex Nedeljkovic for the Dogs. It was former Flint Firebird Josh Wesley who delivered the dagger late in the third, to give the Ice Dogs a 2-1 decision.

BROADCAST INFORMATION:

Spirit fans can catch radio broadcasts on WSGW 100.5 FM, www.fmtalk1005.com , and the FM Talk 100.5 App in the App Store or Google Play with the voices of Spirit Hockey, Joey Battaino and Dennis Desrosiers. For a full TV Broadcast schedule, Click Here. Friday's broadcast begins at 6:50pm. Ice Dogs fans can catch the TV broadcast live on Cogeco channel 10, HD Channel 700. OHL fans in Ontario can catch the action in HD on Rogers channel 464.

Friday is Saginaw Chamber Night at The Dow Event Center. The Spirit invite all Saginaw Chamber Members to the game. For tickets and more information, call (989) 497-7747 or log on to saginawspirit.com.

Check out the Saginaw Spirit Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from January 8, 2016


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