BULLDOGS WIN STREAK HALTED AT 3 IN BARRIE
BARRIE, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs followed up a dramatic 5-4 overtime victory on home ice over the North Bay Battalion on Friday night with a trip to Sadlon Arena to face the Barrie Colts for the first time in the 2023-24 season. The night marked the first meeting of the Bulldogs & Colts since the end of their six game Eastern Conference Quarter-Final in the 2023 OHL playoffs.
With the Bulldogs on back to back games and the Colts at the end of a 3-in-3, the game plan on both sides was clearly to test the goaltenders early and often. In the Bulldogs end, Matteo Drobac turned aside all 10 he faced in the first frame with his best coming coming off a rush from Beau Jelsma that the Bulldogs netminder was able to snag with his glove. The Bulldogs peppered Colts’ goaltender Sam Hillebrandt, playing on back to back nights, with 11 shots through 20 minutes, including a tremendous sequence from Marek Vanacker who forced the Colts goaltender into a sharp blocker save from a right circle attempt. Vanacker followed the puck stealing it away in the right wing corner, carrying back to the slot but just narrowly fired it over the crossbar. With the horn sounding after 20 minutes, Drobac & Hillebrandt stood tall as the game remained scoreless.
The Colts opened the scoring in the middle frame through Seattle Kraken 1st round selection Eduard Sale, recording his third of the season with a wrist shot from the left circle that rattled off the back bar at 3:14 putting the hosts up 1-0. The Colts extended the lead to a pair at 10:53 as Shamar Moses found Riley Patterson off a faceoff win for his 5th of the season. Matteo Drobac bounced right back with a pair of show stopping saves on Shamar Moses, first after a Bulldogs defender had the puck stuck in his skates on a breakout, Moses carried down the middle and tried to beat the Bulldogs netminder five-hole, which Drobac shut off. Moments later, Moses was sprung by Patterson on a breakaway, making a fake to his forehand, the towering rookie tried to tuck the puck backhand only to have Drobac hit the splits and steal a goal from his stick to keep the lead at two, stopping 20 total through 40 minutes. As the period wore on the Bulldogs brought the pressure to Hillebrandt’s goal with Lawson Sherk having the best opportunity on a 2-on-1 only to have the puck the stick at the bottom of the circle giving the Colts netminder time to go post to post for the save.
The final frame began with the Colts extending the lead once more, as Connor Punnett’s right point shot whistled into the Brantford goal for the defenseman’s 2nd of the season coming at 5:43. The Bulldogs worked their way back into the game at 8:02 as Marek Vanacker & Patrick Thomas combined on a right corner cycle to feed Nick Lardis who carried from the right circle to the left and whipped a shot that eluded Sam Hillebrandt to pull the Bulldogs back to within a pair at 3-1. Opportunity knocked shortly afted as Luca Testa was high sticked, the Bulldogs went to the power-play but Hillebrandt once again did just enough to keep the puck out, including a mask save on a right circle drive from Lardis. Shortly after the power-play expired, Beau Jelsma jumped on a heavy hop off the kickplate behind Matteo Drobac’s goal sending a shot off Lawson Sherk and just inside the post to give the Colts a 4-1 lead at 12:49. The Bulldogs furiously pressured Hillebrandt’s net late, pulling Matteo Drobac to the bench with just over five minutes to go and racking up opportunities but it wouldn’t be their night with Connor Punnett adding one more into the empty net to secure a 5-1 Colts win
The Brantford Bulldogs return home and back to action on Wednesday night, November 1st hosting the Guelph Storm, who make their only appearance of the season at the Brantford Civic Centre, with puck drop coming just after 7:00pm.
