EGOROV INCREDIBLE EARNING BULLDOGS POINT AGAINST NORTH BAY
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs returned to the Brantford Civic Centre on Friday night, following an eastern road trip sweep and riding a 3-game winning streak to host the North Bay Battalion. Friday night’s matchup saw Patrick Thomas wear the captain “C” for the first time for the Bulldogs after being announced as the 8th captain in Bulldogs history on Friday morning.
The opening period set a tone for the game that continued throughout, heroics from David Egorov. Including brilliant stops on both Ethan Procyszyn & Jacob Therrien as part of his 12 stops in the frame. Mike McIvor wasn’t to be outdone at the opposite end of the rink, turning aside Cole Brown on an impressive right-wing drive to the front of the net as part of his 6 stops in the period. With the goaltenders holding the gates at either end, the game went to the first intermission scoreless.
The second period was much the same as the first with Egorov & McIvor standing on their heads in a goalie’s duel. North Bay did crack through on the power-play at 12:33 with Ethan Procyszyn handling the puck through his feet right at the net front and sliding it through the Bulldogs netminder for his 8th of the year but that was all the offense the period would see. David Egorov highlighted the frame with a pair of glove saves, first on Procyszyn looking for more, with a shot from the middle of the slot that Egorov split out and snared out of the air. The Bulldogs netminder followed that with a tremendous, short side glove stop on a right-wing drive from Andrew LeBlanc to keep the score 1-0 for the visitors headed to the third.
The Bulldogs came out a different team in the third period, getting to the attack early and often. Just 1:41 into the period, Luca Testa stole the puck just inside the blueline, carrying past a pair of defenders and playing the puck out front. Deflecting off Josh Avery’s skate, who had drove the net occupying a pair of defenders, the puck laid dead for Dylan Tsherna who hammered home his 1st of the season tying the game. The Bulldogs took their first lead at 12:31 with Noah Roberts working the puck right to Owen Protz in the offensive zone, Protz whistled the puck across the net front where Jake O’Brien found it and tossed it into the yawning cage for his 4th of the season and a 2-1 Bulldogs lead. North Bay responded at 13:50 with the Bulldogs unable to clear the puck and a bouncing backhand sweep from Parker Holmes falling right to Stepan Chukharev to collect his 1st OHL goal. With David Egorov stopping 35 of 37 in regulation the Bulldogs collected a point but opened the extra frame shorthanded after a review found a Lucas Moore double minor for high sticking in the closing minutes of the third period.
The Bulldogs, incredibly, killed the penalty which carried over for more than a minute and a half of 4-on-3 time in overtime with Egorov making another trio of stops. As the game got back to even strength at 4-on-4 the Bulldogs had trouble getting their line in the right positions and Andrew LeBlanc took advantage of a forward playing defence, bursting down the right wing and sliding a backhand past Egorov for his 2nd of the season and a 3-2 North Bay victory.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Saturday, October 19th, hosting the Kingston Frontenacs for the second meeting of the two rivals in just 7 days with puck drop at 7:00pm.