EGOROV WEATHERS THE STORM STOPPING 40 IN BULLDOGS 8TH STRAIGHT WIN
GUELPH, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs opened their five-game road trip on Friday night, riding their seven-game win streak into the Sleeman Centre in Guelph for their only visit of the season to meet the Storm.
Without the services of Josh Avery, Parker Holmes & Calvin Crombie due to injuries, Tommy Karmiris joined the Bulldogs lineup for his 2nd game of the season and wasted little time making a physical impact winning a puck on the left-wing boards that nearly ended up with Nikolas Rossetto depositing a slot shot if not for a save from Storm starter Zachary Jovanovski. The Bulldogs opened the scoring at 5:28 with Luca Testa firing forward to Marek Vanacker who sent Jake O’Brien down the slot alone. With a forehand pump fake and shift to his backhand O’Brien recorded a beauty for his 24th of the season giving the visitors the 1-0 edge. David Egorov turned aside all 8 he faced in the opening period with the finest coming on an open Parker Snelgrove left-wing drive. The Bulldogs doubled their lead with a funky goal, Adam Jiricek shifted the puck d-to-d in the Bulldogs end for Owen Protz who whipped it just past the center red line for Jake O’Brien to tip into the Guelph zone. The tip ran to the Guelph net where the puck snuck under Jovanovski’s arm for a near 100-ft goal for O’Brien’s 2nd of the game and 25th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead at 15:08 they carried to the first intermission.
The story of the middle frame was certainly Bulldogs netminder David Egorov who turned aside 20 Storm shots in the middle frame, including three prime opportunities from Charlie Paquette, first in a three-way passing play that was kicked aside in beautiful pad stop. Paquette hammered a shot from the left circle that Egorov was able to glove down and stoned him again with a goal line stack on a shorthanded net drive, assuring the Bulldogs held their 2-0 lead despite the shot advantage for Guelph. Max Namestnikov was sent out of the game for a slew-foot penalty on Lucas Moore, though the Bulldogs were unable to strike on the 5-minute power-play despite a slot opportunity for Nick Lardis that Jovanovski stole away from the Bulldogs sniper.
The final frame saw David Egorov continue his heroics, turning aside another 13 shots while making 40 total saves in the game. The Bulldogs against the heavy pressure extended the lead at 13:56 with Aiden O’Donnell handling a puck down in the right circle and feeding south of the goal line for Dylan Tsherna who drew a pair of defenders before sending the puck net front for Noah Nelson to finish a tic-tac-goal on his 4th of the year, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. The Storm finally cracked through David Egorov on Jett Luchanko scoring 6-on-5 at 16:01 but it’s as close as Guelph would get. With Jovanovski back on the bench at 17:39, Nick Lardis cut off a pass just inside the Brantford blueline and tossed it down the rink into the open goal for his 39th of the season securing the Bulldogs a 4-1 win, the team’s 8th victory in a row.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Saturday night, January 25th, travelling to Sadlon Arena in Barrie to meet the Colts with a 7:30 start time.