LARDIS STRIKES 70; THOMAS SETS RECORD; O’BRIEN HAT-TRICK IN 11-3 WIN
SAGINAW, MICHIGAN. Finishing the Michigan leg of their four-game road trip the Brantford Bulldogs made their only trip to the Dow Event Centre in Saginaw for their 2nd and final meeting of the season with the Saginaw Spirit.
The Bulldogs got a boost in their lineup to open the night with Jake O’Brien returning to action after a one game absence and very quickly made his presence felt. After a wild scramble in front of the Bulldogs goal that saw Ryerson Leenders come up with a pair of spectacular sprawling stops, P.J. Forgione broke up a Marek Vanacker 2-on-1 with Nikolas Rossetto going the other way. Jake O’Brien went straight to the front of the Spirit goal following the play and with Vanacker winning the puck in behind the Saginaw goal, the Blackhawks 1st rounder, set future NHL 1st rounder O’Brien in the slot to one-time a shot past Kaleb Papineau to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at 6:42 with O’Brien hitting the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his OHL career. Just 25-seconds later, Marek Vanacker tipped the puck loose out of the Bulldogs defensive zone and outraced both Spirit defenders carrying in on a breakaway from the left wing. Vanacker crossed in front of the Spirit goal, forcing Papineau to sprawl out and beating the Spirit netminder with a twist to his backhand for his 20th goal of the season and 2-0 Brantford lead at 7:07. The Spirit got one back after Caleb Mangone sent Zayne Parekh ahead on the right-wing side where the 100-point defenseman corralled the puck from his knees and dealt a perfect pass across the slot to an on-rushing Jacob Cloutier who’s shot deflected off a Bulldogs stick and knuckled past Leenders for the rookie’s 22nd of the season pulling the Spirit to within a goal at 9:53. History was made once again 12:52 off of a left-circle faceoff win with Patrick Thomas drawing the puck on to Adam Jiricek who laid the puck across the slot for Nick Lardis to corral at the right circle. With a single stride, Lardis unleased a wrist shot that darted through Papineau and into the Spirit net for his 69th of the season. With his assist on the goal, Patrick Thomas crossed the 100-point mark, becoming the 4th Bulldog to accomplish the feat and recorded his 249th point, becoming the Bulldogs all-time franchise leader in points passing Arthur Kaliyev’s 248. The first period came to a close with the Bulldogs holding a 3-1 lead to the locker room.
The middle frame was an offensive romp for the Bulldogs, starting at 1:15 after Marek Vanacker took a high cycle feed from Owen Protz and took a loop around the offensive zone before passing off to Jake O’Brien net front to slam home his 2nd of the game & 31st of the season. The Bulldogs top line was next with Patrick Thomas wheeling the puck to the front of the Spirit net to Nick Lardis who had it hop off his stick and land for Cole Brown to hammer past Papineau for his 32nd of the season at 3:54. The run of goals continued at 6:02 with the Bulldogs again seeing history made on the power-play with Jake O’Brien sending Cole Brown across the line on the right-wing side. Brown crossed it back to the left for Nick Lardis flying loose in the offensive zone where Lardis drove it past Papineau to become the 8th OHLer to ever hit 70 goals and join Wayne Gretzky, Doug Gilmour & Steve Schutt with 70, accomplishing the feat in 61 games and giving the Bulldogs a 6-1 lead. Dima Zhilkin gave the Spirit some life at 9:53 converting a right wing shot past Leenders to make it 6-2 on his 13th of the season. The Bulldogs turned the game right back 38-seconds later with Jake O’Brien sending Marek Vanacker and Nikolas Rossetto forward in a 2-on-1 with Vanacker hitting Rossetto on the left to convert past Sammy DiBlasi, who had entered the game in Papineau’s relief, and collect his 7th of the season to push the Bulldogs ahead 7-2. Dylan Tsherna connected with Calvin Crombie off the left-side of the Spirit goal to convert his 5th of the season at 13:51 to bubble the game to 8-2. Thomas Budnick led the charge to extend the lead again at 15:10 as the defenseman played the puck forward for Patrick Thomas to fly down the left-wing side and dance past DiBlasi, freezing him at the post and tucking it into the goal to take a 9-2 lead on Brown’s 2nd of the game and 33rd of the season. The Bulldogs collected one more before the period was out, at 19:33 with Calvin Crombie returning the earlier favour setting Dylan Tsherna on the door-step for his 2nd of the season at 19:33 to make it 10-2 at the end of 40 minutes.
Ryerson Leenders was outstanding in the third period, stopping a 2-on-1 from Michael Misa & Igor Chernyshov before stealing another from Chernyshov in the right circle. The Spirit got one back in the final frame as Xander Velliaris capitalized on a broken play, setting to the middle for Liam Stortch to backhand off the crossbar and in for his 5th of the year at 10:30 but the Bulldogs weren’t done just yet. Daniel Chen laid the puck over the blueline on the right-wing side for Marek Vanacker who played into a crowd through the circle for Jake O’Brien who collected the puck, drove through the pile and while being hooked by Kristian Epperson, tossed a one-hand attempt through Kaleb Papineau who returned to the goal for the final frame to complete his hat-trick and finish off an 11-3 Bulldogs victory and a Michigan sweep.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Thursday, March 14th, paying their final visit of the season to the North Bay Battalion with a 7:00pm puck drop.
