HAMARA & O’BRIEN RECORD 4 POINTS EACH; LEENDERS STOPS 40 IN 8-2 WIN  

OWEN SOUND, ONTARIO. Skating in their first game following the OHL’s holiday break, the Brantford Bulldogs travelled to Owen Sound to close the season series with the Attack.

Saturday’s game marked a milestone for Bulldogs netminder Ryerson Leenders who, with the starting nod, made his 100^th career OHL appearance. It was all Leenders early on with a split pad save on Landon Hookey inside the first couple of shifts. The Bulldogs netminders continued his dominant early work, denying Hookey on a 2-on-0 with a sliding shoulder stop, stealing a short break chance from Sam McCue and denying another 2-on-1 opportunity from Pierce Mbuyi as part of 11 opening frame saves. The Bulldogs got their offense on track through the power-play at 13:06 with Tomas Hamara & Nick Lardis exchanging out high and Lardis directing to the bottom of the left circle for Jake O’Brien who walked along the bottom of the circle and fired a shot off Elliot Arnett that directed into the goal for a 1-0 lead on O’Brien’s 19^th of the season. Returning to the power-play late in the frame, it took just 6-seconds to strike with Cole Brown directing the puck back to Tomas Hamara whose initial shot hit the post but fell for Patrick Thomas to bat behind Matthew Koprowski for a 2-0 Bulldogs lead on the captain’s 14^th of the season at 19:28. Only 13-seconds later, at 19:41, Nikolas Rossetto’s rush on the right-wing side was turned aside but the clearance wouldn’t get past Lucas Moore who fired a shot to the front of the net where it was tipped by Aiden O’Donnell for his 5^th of the year, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead to the locker room through 20-minutes.

In the middle frame, the Attack began to work their back, playing in his first OHL game, Michael Dec took a slot feed from Antonio Tersigni, recording his 1^st OHL goal at 10:40 to pull the Attack within a pair. After a wild exchange that began with Landon Hookey and Noah Roberts locking up next to Ryerson Leenders and ending with Robers & James Petrovski dropping the gloves and an Attack power-play, the hosts pulled one closer. Michael Dec working through the left circle, delivered a great feed across the slot for Pierce Mbuyi to fire in his 8^th of the season cutting the Bulldogs lead to 3-2 at 13:33. The game didn’t stay tight for long with the Bulldogs turning the tables back, just 23-seconds later. Calvin Crombie carried through the neutral zone on the right wing, playing left to Marek Vanacker over the line, dropping it below the goal line back to Crombie who hit Jake O’Brien crashing down through the slot batting in his 2^nd of the game and 20^th of the season, bubbling the lead back to a pair at 4-2. The Bulldogs continued to press the offense at 16:05, Jake O’Brien delivered the puck through neutral ice to Tomas Hamara, carrying just off the right side of the slot and delivering a perfect pass net front to Marek Vanacker who turned his shot behind Koprowski, recording his 4^th of the season. Just as they did in the opening period, the Bulldogs struck for a pair in the final minute of the middle frame. With the Bulldogs on the power-play at 19:27, Tomas Hamara fed Jake O’Brien in the left circle whose shot was turned aside where Nick Lardis picked up the rebound. Despite Koprowski stopping Lardis’ initial shot, the Bulldogs sniper pick up his own rebound, carrying the puck through right corner, out past the top of the right circle, curling through the slot and into the left circle, eluding the stick check of Sam McCue and rifling his 30^th of the season past the Attack netminder to give the Bulldogs a 6-2 lead. Only 26-seconds later, Calvin Crombie started the play at the right point, sending a diagonal pass to Aiden O’Donnell, who crossed the puck back to the right side of the Attack goal where Josh Avery was able to finish the tic-tac-goal for his 6^th of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 7-2 with 40-minutes in the books.

The final frame was lighter on offense after Trenten Bennett replaced Matthew Koprowski in the Attack goal, with the Bulldogs adding one more before time ran out. On the power-play once more at 12:46, Owen Protz worked the puck into the left circle for Calvin Crombie who rotated it back to the right point for Lucas Moore who used Aiden O’Donnell’s net front screen to launch his shot through Bennett for his 1^st of the season, making it an 8-2 game which is where the score stood as 60-minutes ran out with Ryerson Leenders stopping 40 of 42 to give the Bulldogs the 8-2 victory.

The Bulldogs close 2024, meeting the Erie Otters at the Erie Insurance Arena on December 31^st with a 6:00pm start time.