LARDIS LASERS A PAIR BUT DOGS TURNED BACK IN SUDBURY
SUDBURY, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs finished a three game road trip on Friday night with their final trip of the season to Sudbury, in a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.
Missing Tomas Hamara still at the World Junior Hockey Championship, and Patrick Thomas & Florian Xhekaj to illness the Bulldogs were pressed for bodies as they ended the road trip. The Sudbury Wolves hopped out to the early advantage as off a deflection in the Bulldogs zone, Nathan Villeneuve recorded his 9th of the season at 7:14 to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead. After the Bulldogs had killed off the first part of a 5-on-3 the Wolves struck with just 17-seconds left in the 5-on-4 with Keiron Walton striking for his 14th at 13:51 to give the Wolves a 2-0 lead. The Bulldogs bounced back just 16-seconds after the Walton goal. Jake O’Brien stole the puck in behind the Sudbury goal and fed Marek Vanacker on the left side of the net who shifted the puck to the right circle for Nick Lardis to unleash his 27th of the season cutting the defecit to 2-1. At 18:55, Lardis was onto it again on the power-play. Luca Testa dealt the puck back to Lucas Moore in the middle of the line who delivered it onto Lardis who fired a right circle one-timer across Marcus Vandenberg and into the Sudbury net for his 2nd of the game & 28th of the season to tie the game 2-2. With 12 saves in the opening frame, Matteo Drobac assured the game went to the intermission all locked up at 2-2.
The Bulldogs opened up a goal heavy middle frame by taking their first lead of the hockey game as Jake O’Brien made a brilliant puck collection pulling it through his feet and all in one move delivering it on the backhand to Jorian Donovan who fired the puck in for his 9th goal of the season giving the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead at 7:04. The Wolves responded with the next three goals over four and a half minutes to take the lead back. The offense started with Lucas Signoretti on a 2-on-1 delivering it to the front of the Bulldogs net for Chase Coughlan to tap to the back of the net to tie the game back up at 9:02. Quentin Musty followed up at 11:16 for his 18th of the season to give the Wolves back the lead 4-3. The Wolves doubled up the advantage at 13:40 with Landon McCallum firing home his 12th of the season to make it a 5-3 Sudbury lead. The Wolves had their second 5-on-3 of the game late in the second frame with the Bulldogs escaping it, largly due to the play of Drobac. Just after the first penalty expired, Ben Bujold bombed the puck ahead to Marek Vanacker fresh out of the box who carried the puck off the right circle to the front of the Wolves goal. With just a couple touches, Vanacker slid the puck through the legs of Vandenberg, recording his 16th of the season at 19:47 to pull the Bulldogs to within 5-4 through 40 minutes.
The final 20 minutes slanted to the Wolves, despite a furious effort from the Bulldogs. At 14:05, Evan Konyen touched home his 16th of the season to give the Wolves a 6-4 lead. The Bulldogs found themselves on a late power-play, pulling Matteo Drobac, who stopped 39 shots in the game, to the bench for the extra attacker. Chances for Nick Lardis, Jake O’Brien and Luca Testa all followed but the Bulldogs weren’t able to draw any closer. With David Goyette hitting the empty net at 19:31 to give the Wolves a 7-4 lead they would close out to take the win and the solo lead of the Eastern Conference.
The Brantford Bulldogs return home to the Brantford Civic Centre on Sunday, January 7th, hosting a 2:00pm matinee against the visiting Mississauga Steelheads in their first visit of the 2023-24 season to Brantford.