LARDIS PAIR TAKES OHL GOAL LEAD & MOORE SKATES IN 200TH; DOGS FALL TO OTTERS ON NYE
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA. For their final game of the calendar year 2024, the Brantford Bulldogs went south of the border for New Year’s Eve, meeting the Erie Otters at the Erie Insurance Arena in their only visit of the season.
Lucas Moore began the night skating in his 200th OHL game, becoming the fourth Bulldog to reach that mark on the 2024-25 season, following Patrick Thomas, Cole Brown & Nick Lardis. Ryerson Leenders who played in his 100th OHL game on Saturday night in Owen Sound picked right up where he left off in that game, denying all 12 shots he faced in the opening frame and turning aside a pair of slot opportunities from Pano Fimis and Malcolm Spence to highlight his first period. The Bulldogs broke the ice at 8:27 just after a power-play had expired with Lucas Moore and Tomas Hamara combining out high to hold the puck in the offensive zone and set Nick Lardis on the right side. Lardis strode through the circle and found Jake O’Brien whose initial shot from the inside of the left circle was stopped but stayed with the rebound to pop it through the pile to Patrick Thomas to collect his 15th of the season and give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead they took to the locker room through 20 minutes.
Noah Erliden made himself the story between the Otters pipes to open the second period, denying Nick Lardis in a 2-on-1 with Jake O’Brien with a marvelous split save, followed by blockering off a Marek Vanacker left-wing rush. The Otters were able to collect themselves after the Bulldogs bombarded the front of the Erie goal and knot the game at 5:33. Ty Henry shoveled the puck left for Gabriel Frasca at the top of the left circle, where the Otters forward fired a shot through a Brett Hammond screen that caught the elbow between the post and cross-bar and landed over the goal line behind Ryerson Leenders on his 6th of the season. Leenders answered back denying a pair of Otters’ shorthanded opportunities, first with a glove stop on Malcolm Spence before denying Alex Messier in a 2-on-1 to keep the game level. The Bulldogs pressure at the Erie end paid off at 13:00 with Nikolas Rossetto stealing a puck in neutral ice and carrying away on the left-wing side. Cutting middle, the impressive rookie froze Erliden and tucked a backhand around his pad giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead on Rossetto’s 5th of the year. The scoring wasn’t finished yet for the middle frame with the Otters on the power-play at 19:11, Martin Misiak took a Pano Fimis feed in the left circle. Jake O’Brien set up to block a potential Misiak shot sliding for a block, but Misiak turned the puck to the slot for Malcolm Spence who had come open to pot his 16th of the season, tying the game and heading to the locker room through 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs got a dream start to the final frame, converting on an early power-play at 1:10 with Tomas Hamara playing low on the left side for Jake O’Brien who carried towards the left corner and swung an incredible backhand pass across the rink on a diagonal to the right circle for a one-timer from Nick Lardis, collecting his 31st of the season and giving the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. Only 47-seconds later, Jake O’Brien won a right circle faceoff in the offensive zone with Nick Lardis swinging to deliver the puck to Ben Radley along the blueline. Radley carried left and stepped down towards the circle sending a pass that split through four Erie defenders, finding Lardis again for another one-timer to record his 2nd of the game and 32nd of the year at 1:57 giving the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead. Gabriel Frasca quickly ended the fun for the Bulldogs at 2:29, after a Nicholas Holomego shot was deflected off Ryerson Leenders’ shoulder, the puck fell dead in the crease where Frasca poked it over the line for his 2nd of the game to cut the lead to 4-3. Sam Alfano knotted the game up once more with Pano Fimis finding him through the slot where the towering winger lifted a backhand over Leenders and under the bar for his 20th of the season making it a 4-4 game at 6:38. The Otters took their first lead of the night at 10:12 and it would be the only one they would need as Martin Misiak set Wesley Royston to rocket home his 9th of the season giving the Otters a 5-4 lead that the hosts would hold onto with Noah Erliden making 31 saves for the win.
The Brantford Bulldogs open up 2025 returning home on Thursday, January 2nd to host the Kitchener Rangers, 7:00pm, followed by a trip to Sarnia to face the Sting on Friday, January 3rd, 7:00pm, and finishing the weekend hosting the Ottawa 67’s on Sunday, January 5th, 2:00pm.
