DICKINSON & COWAN STAR AS KNIGHTS RACE PAST BULLDOGS
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Civic Centre was treated on Wednesday night to a matchup between the OHL’s conference leaders as the East leading Brantford Bulldogs hosted the West leading London Knights for the only time in the 2024-25 season.
The Bulldogs received a boost in the health department with the returns of Adam Jiricek & Dylan Tsherna to the lineup while David Egorov returned as well, backing up Ryerson Leenders for the cross-conference clash. The Knights came storming out of the gates and got to an early power-play after Adam Jiricek & Kasper Halttunen collided just inside the Brantford blueline. Sam O’Reilly worked the puck to Sam Dickinson at the top of the formation, with the gifted defender twisting it over to Easton Cowan in the right circle. The Maple Leafs prospect strode through the circle and snuck a shot over Leenders’ pad and inside the post for his 25th of the season giving the Knights a 1-0 lead. The Knights appeared to go up by a pair after an Andoni Fimis fired a shot from the top of the right circle off a leg that ended up in the Bulldogs net. Upon video review, Noah Read was offside on the zone entry, denying the doubling of the lead and keeping the game at a one goal difference. Austin Elliott was tremendous in the London net in the opening frame, stopping both a Nick Lardis right circle drive and a short distance breakaway from Marek Vanacker, while Ryerson Leenders responded with a brilliant cross crease stop in a 2-on-1 on Jesse Nurmi to keep the Bulldogs within a shot through the opening 20 minutes.
The middle frame was all Knights in the first half. Bettering their opening salvo of the first frame in doubling the lead at 1:11. Right as a Bulldogs power-play expired, Jacob Julien tossed the puck out of his own zone to Landon Sim escaping the penalty box and stretching into a breakaway where Sim recorded his 26th of the season to take a 2-0 Knights lead. The Knights extended the advantage at 6:19 with Noah Read setting a charging Sam Dickinson down the slot where the Sharks first-rounder turned to his backhand and lifted the puck over Leenders’ shoulder to give the Knights a 3-0 lead. The scoring rounded out at 7:31 with Jesse Nurmi being set by Sam Dickinson for his 9th of the season to put the Knights up by a 4-0 score and spelling the end of the night for Ryerson Leenders with David Egorov making his first appearance in the Bulldogs goal since January 31st. Egorov denied all 6 he faced in the period while the Bulldogs started to pile attempts towards Austin Elliott but a pair of saves on Nick Lardis kept the Bulldogs scoreless through 40 minutes.
The third period began as the first two with the Knights striking early. Battling the puck loose shorthanded, Jacob Julien stole the puck and carried through the right circle and delivered to the front of the net to Easton Cowan to record his 2nd of the game and 26th of the season at 1:23 to set the Knights to a 5-0 lead. The Bulldogs put on a press in trying to break Austin Elliott’s shutout, despite the efforts of Marek Vanacker and Nick Lardis on point blank looks, the Knights netminder turned aside all 28 he faced in a 5-0 Knights win.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Friday night, March 7th visiting the Flint Firebirds at 7:00pm before closing their season series with the Saginaw Spirit on Saturday night, March 8th for another 7:00pm start.
