1ST PERIOD RODEO HELPS BULLDOGS TAME COLTS 6-1
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs played host to the Barrie Colts in their first home game following the holiday break on Saturday afternoon, entering the game just one point out of first place in the Eastern Conference.
The Bulldogs were quick to get on the scoreboard in the matinee with Lucas Moore & Noah Van Vliet exchanging the on a “d to d” pass off the opening draw finding Florian Xhekaj up the left wing. Striding past the Colts defense, Xhekaj fired a wrist shot through the arm of Ben West to open the scoring to score on his 12th of the season just 12-seconds into the game. Jacob Frasca answered back 11-seconds later scoring his 5th of the season, knotting the game 1-1 after just 23 seconds had been played. Marek Vanacker continued to wield the hot hand, as the Delhi product stole the puck in the offensive zone, worked his way to the slot and recorded his his 13th of the season putting the Bulldogs back on top at 1:05. After Matteo Drobac came up with a ridiculous diving paddle stop with the Colts on the power-play, the Bulldogs gave their goaltender a little insurance to work with. At 12:35, Lucas Moore sent the puck over to his defense partner Noah Van Vliet along the offensive blueline, allowing Van Vliet to sneak down through the left circle where he fired the puck past West 2nd of the season to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead. Just 10 seconds later after the Bulldogs dumped the puck into the offensive zone, Jake O’Brien collected a carom off the right wing boards, playing the puck through his own feet to his stick. Working into the slot, O’Brien’s shot found the back of the net for his 5th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead. The Colts found a bit of momentum after captains Lawson Sherk & Connor Punnett dropped the gloves but 8 saves on 9 shots in the first period from Matteo Drobac assured the Bulldogs took their 4-1 lead to the locker room through 20-minutes.
The middle frame opened to a more subdued pace with the Bulldogs continuing to pepper the Barrie goal. The pressure paid off at 11:08, with Noah Nelson in the right wing corner passing the puck to Cole Brown who sent a no look pass net front to Ben Bujold who flew to the front of the net, tucking it behind the pads of Ben West to score his 10th goal of the season putting the hosts up by a 5-1 score. Cole Brown made an attempt to quickly follow up driving the Colts zone on a 2-on-1 with Florian Xhekaj, Brown’s selected shot but Ben West was able to get enough of the puck to keep it aside. A scary moment late in the middle frame as Connor Punnett received a 5-minute major & game misconduct for a check from behind on Bulldogs forward Noah Nelson who was slow to get up, though Nelson didn’t return to the game, he was able to leave the ice under his own power and make his way to the Bulldogs dressing room with assistance from the Bulldogs medical staff. After 40-minutes the Bulldogs held the 5-1 lead with a 29-16 edge in shots on goal.
The final frame saw Matteo Drobac assure his team the victory with his best 20-minutes of the night, holding aside all 11 shots he faced in the period, including on a late Barrie power-play. The Bulldogs offense wasn’t finished for the night, bumping their lead to 6-1 at 9:07. Marek Vanacker sent Jake O’Brien down the right wing side, turing the puck through a thicket of sticks from the goaline to the slot for Cedricson Okitundu who collected his 5th goal of the season, and 3rd in the past two nights. At the sound of the buzzer, the Bulldogs sent themselves back to the top of the Eastern Conference with the 6-1 win on a night that saw 10 different Bulldogs collect at least a point and 6 different goal scorers.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action tomorrow afternoon for their final game of the 2023 calendar year visiting the Erie Insurance Arena for the only time in a 4:00pm New Years Eve matinee against the Otters.
