LEENDERS DAZZLES AGAIN; VANACKER NETS A PAIR IN 5-1 WIN OVER WOLVES
SUDBURY, ONTARIO. Finishing out a four-game road trip on Friday night the Brantford Bulldogs met the Sudbury Wolves for the final time in the 2024-25 season, with the Bulldogs aiming for a sweep of the trip following a 2-1 win on Thursday in North Bay.
The Bulldogs got out to an early lead at 5:06 with Cole Brown entering the zone on the right-wing side and feeding on for Jake O’Brien. Weaving through a pair of defenders, O’Brien danced into the slot and turned the puck left for a charging Marek Vanacker to slam past Nate Krawchuk for his 22nd of the season giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 edge. Ryerson Leenders was spectacular in the opening frame stopping all 17 shots he faced with his best coming off a Kieron Walton rush that Leenders denied the initial and managed to glove the Chase Coughlan rebound followed by a shoulder stop on an Ondrej Molnar rush late in the frame. The Bulldogs lost Tomas Hamara for a stretch of the opening frame after taking a high stick from the aforementioned Coughlan which drew blood on the brilliant Czech defenseman but we’re still able to take the 1-0 lead down the tunnel through 20 minutes.
Wasting no time in the middle frame the Bulldogs struck just 28-seconds into the frame with Ryerson Leenders moving the puck around back of the Bulldogs goal to start a rush with Patrick Thomas. The Bulldogs captain laid it off on the right-wing side to Nick Lardis charging through the circle where Lardis attempted to find Cole Brown on a cross-ice feed. The attempted pass deflected off Donovan McCoy and landed for Patrick Thomas to jam past Krawchuk to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead on the captain’s 27th of the season. The hosts responded at 2:03 with the puck jammed up in the right-wing corner of the Bulldogs zone, Rowan Henderson found himself alone in the slot to handle a Jack Zilitotto pass and with time and space was able to outwait Ryerson Leenders to tuck the puck past his pad for his 10th of the season and halving the lead to 2-1. Leenders was spectacular from there, stopping Kieron Walton alone on the doorstep followed by a pair of stops on Nathan Villeneuve to keep the Bulldogs ahead. Nick Lardis looked to have recorded his 72nd of the season on a net front play from Cole Brown that was taken off the board on a very questionable offside review. Before the frame was out however the Bulldogs did manage to extend the lead with Thomas Budnick twisting the puck forward to Nikolas Rossetto at the Sudbury blueline and leading Noah Nelson down the left side in a 2-on-1 where Nelson caught Krawchuk cheating off the post and slid it through his legs for his 8th of the season to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead at 18:44 they held to the intermission.
The third period was all Bulldogs, controlling possession for large swaths of the frame. On a Nikolas Rossetto led rush at 14:31, the Bulldogs rookie raced down the left-wing, pulling up in the circle and feeding on to Jake O’Brien in the slot who played the puck through his own feet and delivered off to the right for Marek Vanacker to dart past a sprawling Nate Krawchuk for his 2nd of the game & 23rd of the season giving the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead. With the Wolves trying to press, the Bulldogs took advantage of a neutral ice turnover and Noah Nelson fed on the left-wing side to Aiden O’Donnell who eluded a Donovan McCoy hit before feeding to the middle of the ice for Calvin Crombie to race on and deposit his 6th of the season at 16:12 and finish off a 5-1 Bulldogs win with Ryerson Leenders stopping 43 of 44 shots.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on home ice on Wednesday, March 19th when they face off with the Brampton Steelheads at the Brantford Civic Centre for a 7:00pm puck drop.
