NELSON NAVIGATES BULLDOGS TO 5-1 VICTORY OVER SPITFIRES
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs hosted Renway Retro Night on Saturday against the Windsor Spitfires for their only visit of the season. The night began with the Civic Centre welcoming back a quartet of Brantford Alexanders, led by franchise leading scorer Mike Bullard, to celebrate the occasion.
While still missing some key faces in the lineup, the Bulldogs welcomed two new ones for the Saturday matinee. Briir Long took his rookie lap marking his first OHL appearance for the Bulldogs, joined by Joshua Avery getting the call up for his first home game with the Bulldogs. The hosts were quick to get on the board, opening the scoring at 4:25 with Zakary Lavoie dropping the puck for Daniil Sobolev in a cycle along the right half wall. Sobolev flipped the puck to the front of the net for the stick of Marek Vanacker potted his 20th of the season. With the goal Vanacker extended his point streak to 6 games,with 10 points in that stretch, while hitting the 20-goal milestone for the first time in his OHL career. The Bulldogs doubled the lead at 15:42 with Calvin Crombie winning possession off of a right circle faceoff win, working to the right half board where first-year Bulldogs tossed the puck middle, finding Noah Nelson who tipped it passed Joey Costanzo for his 4th of the season. The Spitfires cut into the Bulldogs lead at 18:20 with Valentin Zhugin putting a shot on Matteo Drobac where the Brantford netminder made a solid blocker stop only for the rebound to roll right to Pasquale Zito, jumping on the rebound & scoring his 3rd of the season.
The middle frame was a more tame affair than the opening period but the end to end style continued. After a clean penalty sheet in the opening frame, the Spitfires garnered the game’s first chance with the power-play just over 5 minutes into the period. A strong penalty killing shift from the defensive pair of Lucas Moore & Daniil Sobolev helped Matteo Drobac keep the hosts infront. The penalty kill was significant as the Bulldogs added to their at 10:32. Noah Nelson collected the puck in the right corner, drawing a defender and sliding it to Zakary Lavoie in the slot. With a quick move through the backcheking Zhugin, Lavoie earned himself open space and snapped a shot through the 6-hole on Costanzo to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead on his 17th of the season. Ryan Abraham looked to cut back into the lead in the latter portion of the period, breaking through four defenders, splitting through the middle with speed. Matteo Drobac continued his mastery in one-on-one situations, denying the speedy Spits forward with a sharp right pad stop to send his team to the final frame with a 3-1 lead.
The Spitfires opened the third period on the man-advantage but the game quickly evened as after a Lucas Moore hit on Valentin Zhugin, Spitfires captain Liam Greentree stepped to his linemates aid with a cross-check on Moore and a fight resulting in the Bulldogs first power-play of the game. The suddenly hot Bulldogs power-play continued its upswing at 3:06 as Florian Xhekaj moved the puck to Owen Protoz at the right point who directed it towards the net where Jake O’Brien had eluded any defensive coverage to knock in his 7th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 4-1 advantage. The Bulldogs offense sealed the deal at 11:20 as Ben Bujold stole the puck high on the left wing side in the attacking zone, working through the slot he left the puck on for Adrian Rebelo tracking into the right circle, letting loose a shot that Joey Costanzo batted into the air. With brilliant patience and hand-eye coordination, captain Lawson Sherk bunted the puck out of the air, below the crossbar, to extend the Bulldogs lead to 5-1 on his 5th of the season. Matteo Drobac did the rest, holding aside 21 of the 22 he faced in another starring performance and with the 5-1 win tying Kaden Fulcher for most career wins by a Bulldogs goaltender with 55.
The Bulldogs head back on the road tomorrow. Sunday, January 21st, to the Paramount Fine Foods Center to take on the Mississauga Steelheads with puck drop at 2:00pm.
