LARDIS RETURNS WITH A PAIR TO LIFT DOGS TO HOME & HOME SWEEP OVER GENS
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs hit the middle leg of their 3-in-3 on Saturday afternoon hosting the second half of their home & home with the Oshawa Generals at the Civic Centre.
Following a one game absence due to illness Nick Lardis returned to the Bulldogs lineup, while Luca Testa was forced to miss Saturday’s contest for the same reason. Just the Bulldogs did in Oshawa on Friday night, they struck first on Saturday. Patrick Thomas fed Nick Lardis for a slot opportunity at Isaac Gravelle with the Generals netminder coming up with the stop, but the bouncing rebound found its way off a leg and over to Cole Brown who settled the puck and sent it off Gravelle and into the Generals net for his 17th of the season at 8:39. The Bulldogs appeared to double the lead shortly after with Jake O’Brien corralling a bouncing puck on his backhand and shifting forehand to look to toss it over the goal line. Gravelle made a desperation play back along the goal line with the puck appearing to cross the line but being under the Generals goaltender and therefore not able to be called a goal upon review keeping the score at 1-0 with David Egorov making 11 saves in the opening frame.
The Generals knotted the game in the middle frame with Colby Barlow taking a defensive zone feed from Luca D’Amato up the left-wing side and letting go of a shot from just above the left circle that eluded Egorov to make it 1-1, 46-seconds into the second period. The game remained knotted until the later stages of the period with Barlow attempting to play back to his defense only to have a bouncing puck escape to the end boards. Lardis used the opportunity to race onto the puck, curling around the back of the Generals net. Emerging on the right-wing side, Lardis curled to the top of the right circle and fired a shot through a Cole Brown screen that caught the inside of the far post and deposited into the Generals net for Lardis’ 35th of the season and a 2-1 Bulldogs lead at 16:25 that they took down the tunnel through 40-minutes.
David Egorov produced his finest save of the night in the final frame with the Generals loading up their top line and Colby Barlow getting a point-blank look from the inside of the left circle that Egorov turned aside with a brilliant glove save. The Bulldogs took the first multi-goal lead of the game with a power-play expiring. Nick Lardis danced the puck over the Oshawa line to keep everyone onside, feeding Patrick Thomas at the top of the slot. The captain quickly touched it low to his right for Jake O’Brien in the circle where the gifted playmaker shifted it across the offensive zone for the on-rushing Marek Vanacker to hammer behind Gravelle for his 7th of the season and a 3-1 Brantford lead at 14:14. The Generals wasted little time finding a response, with Ben Danford setting Luca Marrelli in the middle of the Brantford blueline for a rocket that launched into the Bulldogs goal for the defenseman’s 16th of the season at 15:08 cutting the lead to 3-2. With the Generals piling on pressure and Gravelle on the bench, the Bulldogs group of Josh Avery, Parker Holmes, Noah Nelson, Lucas Moore & Tomas Hamara were stuck on the ice for an extended stretch and through multiple icings but managed to hold the Generals at bay until they could finally force the puck out and get a line change. With Patrick Thomas hopping on the ice, he was able to bat the puck out of the air and turn it down the rink and into the empty Oshawa goal for his 19th of the season at 19:21 putting the Bulldogs up 4-2. The excitement wasn’t quite finished however as Brooks Rogowski pulled one back just 14-seconds later off a defensive zone turnover clawing the Generals back to within one at 19:35. With 25-seconds to go the Generals tossed the puck in the Bulldogs zone off the faceoff and looked to set their six attackers but the work of Patrick Thomas forced the puck loose at the right point and the captain launched a pass across the rink to Nick Lardis to hit the empty net for his 2nd of the game and 37th of the season at 19:58 to assure the Bulldogs their 5th straight victory and a home and home sweep over the top team in the Eastern Conference coming into Saturday’s game.
With the victory, the Bulldogs assured themselves the season seires against the Generals with a 5-2-0-0 record and 10 total points with one meeting left. The Bulldogs return to action on Sunday afternoon a 4:00pm closing out their weekend 3-in-3 playing host to the North Bay Battalion.