LARDIS SCORES 25TH; FLORES STOPS 43 AS DOGS DROP 4-3 DECISION
ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs bus pulled up to the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines for a Sunday matinee against the Niagara IceDogs for the third meeting of the season between the two sides, splitting the opening pair with the road team winning each.
The Bulldogs looked to have opened the scoring early in the first period with Patrick Thomas setting Cole Brown in the slot where the Bulldogs forward whistled a shot over Owen Flores glove only to have the effort called back on a net front slashing penalty to the Bulldogs keeping the game scoreless. The IceDogs opened the scoring with a bit of a lucky break after Kevin He entered the zone on the right-wing side and setting Sean Doherty in the slot where the Niagara forward fanned on the puck, but had it come right back to him off the leg of a Brantford defender to score his 4th of the season giving Niagara a 1-0 lead at 12:16. With the Bulldogs on the power-play at 14:25 they found the equalizer, on a two-on-one rush up the left-wing side Nick Lardis set Jake O’Brien through the middle of the ice where Owen Flores made the initial stop but O’Brien with eyes in the back of his head made a brilliant backhand pass for Cole Brown stepping down from the right circle shelving the puck on his 13th of the season. The IceDogs got the goal back just 22-seconds later, on another fortuitous bounce with a Jack Brauti shot getting stuck up in front of the net in a five-man pile where Braidy Wassilyn was the only player to find it and drop a backhand past David Egorov for his 4th, putting the IceDogs up 2-1. Niagara added one more before the period was out, with Alex Assadourian slowing up at the top of the left circle on a rush and firing a shot that eluded Egorov for his 6th of the season giving the IceDogs a 3-1 lead through the opening frame.
The teams traded markers in the middle frame. After Marek Vanacker was given a 10-minute misconduct, Josh Avery stepped onto that line, and it paid off. Zakary Lavoie played an indirect pass from the middle of the Bulldogs zone off the right-wing boards leading Avery into a two-on-one with Jake O’Brien. Avery with speed in the right circle laid a perfect pass onto O’Brien off the right side that he made no mistake on, putting it through Flores for his 14th of the season, pulling the Bulldogs to within one at 3-2 at 13:48. The IceDog restored the two-goal cushion at 16:05, after a puck skipped over the stick of Owen Protz on a feed from Ryan Roobroeck to Blake Arrowsmith that the winger skated onto and fired over Egorov’s left shoulder for his 5th of the season, giving the IceDogs a 4-2 lead through 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs put a full court press on in the final frame, tossing 16 shots to the net of Owen Flores and storming the net front. The Bulldogs pulled a goal back but it took until the 19:52 mark to do so as Marek Vanacker worked a “statue of liberty” play in the slot, holding up in the traffic and handing off to Patrick Thomas off the right side of the slot who fed it perfectly to the left for Nick Lardis to rocket in his 25th of the season making it 4-3. Making 43 saves on the 46 shots he faced, Owen Flores held the Bulldogs off just enough to earn the two points for the IceDogs in a 4-3 final, in a game the Bulldogs controlled all phases.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, December 11th, paying their final visit of the season to the CAA Centre in Brampton to take on the Steelheads with a 7:00pm puck drop.
