Ice Dogs Trade McDonough, Lose to Spiders in Shootout

They miss Hubie McDonough already.

John Purvis’ shootout goal gave the San Francisco Spiders a 6-5 victory over the Ice Dogs in front of an announced 2,675 at the Sports Arena on Saturday.

The International Hockey League uses a shootout to settle ties rather than overtime. The shootout loser receives one point in the standings and the winner receives two.

Since first-place Las Vegas (7-2-3) also lost in a shootout, 5-4 to Houston, the Ice Dogs (7-3-2) remain in second place.

McDonough, the player Van Boxmeer had called the best in the league, was traded for future considerations to the Orlando Polar Bears before the game.

If not the best player in the IHL, he certainly was the best on the Ice Dogs. He left with a team-high 11 goals and 20 points in his 11 games.

But his $280,000 guaranteed salary, which included housing, was something that needed to be shaved off if the Ice Dogs were going to be able to get under the IHL salary cap, the average of all 19 teams’ salaries at the end of the season.

That means that some teams will necessarily receive a penalty, not made public, that Ice Dog owner Fred Comrie said is “pretty steep.”

The Ice Dogs could have used McDonough, struggling all night with the Spiders (7-6-1), who have struggled to climb above .500.

The Ice Dogs jumped out to a 3-1 first-period lead, but at the end of two periods, the score was tied, 4-4.

Jason Cirone put the Ice Dogs up, 5-4, at 3:14 during a five-on-three power play, taking the rebound of Dwayne Norris’ shot and flicking it into the upper right corner of the net.

But Purvis scored his second goal of the night at 14:16 to tie the score and set up his shootout heroics.