By Craig Campbell
Dundas Star News
Bentley Generals got on the scoreboard first, but quickly saw their 1-0 first period lead slip into a 6-2 loss to host Dundas Real McCoys at the Allan Cup in Dundas, Ontario, Tuesday night.
“We didn’t play our best game. There’s no sugar-coating it,” Bentley head coach Ryan Tobler said. “We’ll be better.”
Tobler said the Generals have to play with an urgency that wasn’t there in their first game of the Allan Cup tournament. Dundas was coming off a 4-3 win over South East Prairie Thunder of Manitoba the night before in their home arena.
The win gives them a bye into the tournament semi-final and an extra day off — something not lost on Ryan Christie, Dundas’ captain and player of the game against Bentley.
“It meant a lot because now we have two days off. We’re not spring chickens anymore,” Christie said. “It’s two days off after two tough games.”
Kyle Bailey, who scored both of Bentley’s goals – including a short-handed marker in the third period, and an even strength score one minute into the game that gave the visitors their only lead of the game – said Dundas took advantage of the Generals’ miscues.
“Credit to them. They got the better of us. They capitalized on our mistakes,” Bailey said. “Big two-on-one’s are really uncharacteristic for our club. It wasn’t our best effort today, but it wasn’t horrible. We did some things well.”
Bentley and Dundas were nearly even with 11 and 13 shots on net, respectively, in the opening frame. Dundas outshot Bentley 11 to 9 in the second period, while Bentley had the advantage 9-7 in the final frame.
But 12 minutes after Bailey, assisted by Don Morrison and Garrett Watson, gave Bentley the quick 1-0 lead, Dundas’ Greg Stewart tied it up, assisted by Justin Davis and Kevin Bolibruck. Dundas took a 2-1 edge into the first intermission thanks to Christie’s shorthanded goal.
It was all Dundas on the scoreboard in the second frame, including a power play marker, to make it 4-1 after two periods.
Bailey found the net for a short-handed goal early in the final period to cut Dundas’ lead to 4-2. But a shorthanded goal from Stewart and a final nail in the coffin by Scott Mifsud rounded out the 6-2 final score.
“One thing I know has to change — we weren’t as strong on the puck as we’ve been all year,” Bailey said.
But the defending champs aren’t worried, or getting down on themselves. Bailey and Tobler made it clear they have too much Allan Cup experience to panic after an opening game loss. “It’s not an elimination game,” Bailey said. “You’re not out until the third game. If you waste your time getting down you’ll be out of it.”
“The first thing you do after a loss is look in the mirror and think about what you can do better. There are things I can do better. It’s nice to see them go in, it’s nice to contribute, but when you contribute in a loss it doesn’t mean anything.”
Bentley meets South East Prairie Thunder tonight at 7:30 for their second game of the Allan Cup tournament round-robin.