Home Cooking New Years Weekend for Bulldogs
Returning from the Christmas break for a pair of games this week, the Hamilton Bulldogs sit tied for 3rd in the Eastern Conference with a 16-8-2-2 record for 36 points, just one point out of first place. The Bulldogs offense has continued to burn its opposition, now with the most goals for in the OHL at 116 following the 10-6 victory over the Peterborough Petes on December 17th. Although there is the now postponement of the New Year’s Eve trip to take on the Barrie Colts, the Dogs will have a pair of home games to return to action with, hosting the Erie Otters on Thursday, December 30th at 7:00pm & the Niagara IceDogs on Sunday, January 2nd at 2:00pm.
As 2021 comes to a close, the Bulldogs are excited to see reinforcements close to coming back into action in the new year. Jan Mysak currently away captaining team Czechia at the World Juniors, Artem Grushnikov, Colton Kammerer and Ryan Winterton look to make their return back from injury.
The Otters are the only the Western conference opponent the Bulldogs will see this season. Hamilton hosted Erie for the first of 6 meetings on December 5th in a fun, fast paced contest that saw the teams trade leads before a brilliant George Diaco “Datsuykian” goal in the shootout and a tremendous performance from Matteo Drobac sealed the victory. George Diaco and Jan Mysak led the way during regulation time in the previous meeting, each recording a pair of assists. With Mysak away, Diaco will be relied upon to lead the offense in this second meeting of the season.
The Bulldogs have seen tremendous success of late against the Niagara IceDogs, having run their record to 4-0-0-0 against their QEW rivals so far this season, extending to 8-0-0-0 going back to the 2nd half of the 2019-20 OHL season. The Bulldogs opened the season series against the IceDogs with back-to-back 4-0 shutouts from Marco Costantini & Tristan Malboeuf on October 15th & 16th. These games were followed up by 6 goal outbursts in the latter two contests, a 6-4 victory on October 29th & a 6-3 victory on November 25th. The November 25th game became a monumental night for the Bulldogs as both Nathan Staios & Logan Morrison recorded their 100th career OHL points in the win. Through 4 games this season, Ryan Humphrey leads the way with 2 goals & 5 assists for 7 points followed by Mark Duarte & George Diaco with 6 points apiece & Lawson Sherk & Logan Morrison each with 5. All in all, 15 different Bulldogs skaters have recorded a point against the IceDogs this season while Humphrey, Diaco & Morrison have recorded at least one point in all 4 meetings. The Bulldogs have also had victories earned by all 3 goaltenders who have appeared for the team this season, Marco Costantini, Matteo Drobac & Tristan Malboeuf.
Tickets for the games on December 30th against Erie & January 2nd against Niagara are available at Ticketmaster.ca or the FirstOntario Centre Box Office.
