SPITFIRES BEST BULLDOGS IN GAME 3 ON JOHNSTON PAIR
HAMILTON, ONTARIO. After splitting the first two games of the OHL Finals in Hamilton, the Bulldogs travelled West down the 401 to the WFCU Centre for Game 3 on Monday night, looking to take home ice advantage back in their favour.
Without captain Colton Kammerer, the Bulldogs turned to rookie Lucas Moore who entered his first playoff game on Monday night. After a feeling out process for both teams to open Game 3, the Bulldogs struck first, with Avery Hayes carrying the puck over the Windsor blue line on the left wing side, dropping just before the top of the circles to Logan Morrison who walked down the circle and ripped a bar-down drive past Mathias Onuska at 10:31 of the opening period giving Hamilton a 1-0 lead. After a brilliant Marco Costantini stop on Will Cuylle, Arber Xhekaj was assessed a slashing penalty which the Bulldogs bench boisterously disagreed with. Hamilton killed the man advantage though tremendous effort from Costantini but Windsor would get the game knotted at 16:58 on a home team bounce. D’Amico dealt the puck off the leg of a Bulldogs defender where it bounced to Alex Christopoulos to score his 9th of the playoffs. Bad luck hounded the Dogs again in the first as a goal mouth scramble at an open net that saw the puck come off all of Morrison, Hayes & Humphrey wouldn’t get past Onuska, a 2-on-1 developed the other way, ending with Wyatt Johnston scoring his 12th of the playoffs putting Windsor up 2-1 at 19:07. Hamilton responded with just :26 seconds left in the period as Mason McTavish took an offensive zone turnover at the right point, spun and fired the puck to the Windsor goal to be tipped in by Ryan Winterton, tying the game 2-2 through 20 minutes.
After the positive end to the opening frame, the second period turned nightmarish for the Bulldogs. Just 2:24 in, an attempted defensive zone clear around the left wing boards was intercepted by Will Cuylle who fed Wyatt Johnston in front of the net for his second of the game and a 3-2 Windsor lead. After a Bulldogs power-play was unsuccessful despite a series of chances at Onuska’s goal, Windsor put a cycle to work in the offensive zone with Nicholas DeAngelis firing a shot through a crowd in front that deflected off Jacob Maillet and into the Bulldogs net giving Windsor a 4-2 lead at 13:46. Mason McTavish joined Logan Morrison & Avery on the Bulldogs top line as the Bulldogs looked for offensive rhythm and started to find some late in the period, outshooting Windsor 13-11 in the frame but found themselves down a pair, 4-2, though 40 minutes.
After an early 3rd period power-play failed to provide a spark for the Bulldogs, Alex Christopoulos recorded his 2nd of the night at 3:21 to give Windsor a 5-2 lead. With the Bulldogs pressing through the third and on the man-advantage at 10:57, Avery Hayes worked the puck back to Arber Xhekaj, feeding Mason McTavish on the right where the sniper faked a one-timer and fired a wrist shot from the bottom of the circle to get the Bulldogs back to within two at 5-3 on McTavish’s 12th of the playoffs. That was as close as the Bulldogs would get in Game 3 with Mathias Onuska stopping 35 of 38 to give Windsor the victory and a 2-1 series lead.
The Hamilton Bulldogs will once again look to even the series on Friday night as they take on the Spitfires in Game 4 at the WFCU Centre in Windsor with a 7:00pm puck drop.
For more information on Hamilton Bulldogs 2022 playoff tickets or playoff flex packs call 905-529-8500 or visit hamiltonbulldogs.com
