FLORIAN XHEKAJ SCORES A PAIR IN DOGS 5-3 LOSS
HAMILTON, ONTARIO. Continuing their season opening 3-game road trip, the Hamilton Bulldogs pulled into Peterborough coming off a tremendous opening night overtime victory in Guelph to take on a Petes team the Bulldogs swept in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs.
Marco Costantini made his first start of the 2022-23 season and was under siege right from the opening draw with the Petes outshooting the Bulldogs 22-6 in the first frame. Costantini was able to hold the door shut until the 11:53 mark of the opening period when Connor Lockhart tossed the puck from the middle of the blueline into a crowd in front of the Hamilton net to give Peterborough a 1-0 lead. The lead was extended shortly after, at 12:17 as Jack Van Volsen tried to set the puck to the netfront on a 2-on-1, though the pass was blocked the puck sat at the side of the net for Van Volsen to toss into Bulldogs goal to make it 2-0 Petes. Before the period was out James Guo let a wrist shot from the right point go through a crowd in front of the Bulldogs goal again at 17:09 to give Peterborough a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes with Costantini making 19 saves.
The second period got off to a rough start for the Bulldogs facing down a 5-on-3 where Samuel Mayer fired home his first of the game off a slick feed from Tucker Robertson at 6:35 giving Peterborough a 4-0 advantage. After Artem Grushnikov was the recipient of a head-check from Chase Stillman and an ensuing fight with Avery Hayes saw the Petes with a brief 4-on-3 power-play Samuel Mayer recorded his 2nd of the game at 7:45 pushing the lead to 5-0. The Bulldogs found some offensive momentum at 14:08 with Noah Van Vliet handling a puck at the left point and ripping a shot to the Peterborough slot where Cole Brown tipped the puck past Michael Simpson for his 1st of the season, giving Hamilton life. Just over a minute later, Braeden O’Keefe took the puck from the right-wing side of neutral ice and centered for Florian Xhekaj who left his feet, diving through the slot to chip the puck over Simpson and into the net for his 1st goal in the Ontario Hockey League getting the Bulldogs one closer, trailing 5-2 through 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs got one closer in the third period as Florian Xhekaj controlled the puck behind the Peterborough goal, dealing a pass to the slot intended for Lawson Sherk whose ensuing shot trickled back to Xhekaj. With Simpson off his post, Xhekaj hammered a shot off his back, banking the puck into the net for his 2nd of the game and 2nd in the Ontario Hockey League getting the Bulldogs within a pair at 5-3 at 11:58. That would be as close as the Bulldogs would get, with a late major penalty assessed to Avery Hayes for boarding the Bulldogs killed off the ensuing power-play and got Costantini to the bench late but couldn’t find anything further, falling by a 5-3 final, despite 43 saves from their netminder.
The Hamilton Bulldogs return to action on Friday night, October 7th finishing up their 3-game road trip in at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre visiting the Owen Sound Attack at 7:30pm. The Bulldogs will then return home to FirstOntario Centre to host the Oshawa Generals at 7:00pm on Saturday, October 8th where the team will commemorate the 2022 OHL Championship, raising all four banners.
For more information on Hamilton Bulldogs 2022-23 Season Ticket packages call 905-529-8500 or visit hamiltonbulldogs.com
