WINDSOR, ONTARIO. Finishing out a busy stretch of three games in four nights and six games in nine days overall, the Brantford Bulldogs made the trip to the WFCU Centre in Windsor on Saturday night for their final meeting of the season with the West division leading Windsor Spitfires.
Adding to the Bulldogs list of unavailable player, Cole Brown and Nikolas Rossetto were unable to skate on Saturday night and the Bulldogs brought both Tommy Karmiris & Braeden O’Keefe back from Burlington & Niagara Falls respectively for the trip. Ryerson Leenders picked right up where he left off on Friday night with a spectacular first period performance, stopping 10 shots in the opening period, including a brilliant dragging pad save on Noah Morneau who broke in off the left side alone and couldn’t beat the outstretched right leg of the Brantford netminder. The Bulldogs broke the ice with the white-hot power-play striking for its 4th over the past two games at 14:31 with Patrick Thomas and Jake O’Brien playing a give and go through the left circle. As Thomas attempted to return the puck to O’Brien who had rotated to the right side, the pass was batted down and Marek Vanacker was able to spin off of a check and pot the bouncing puck for his 14th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Brantford nearly escaped the opening frame unscathed, but a late zone exit pass from Tommy Budnick was blocked off the skate of Liam Greentree and the puck fell right to the stick of the Los Angeles Kings prosect who was able to best a surprised Ryerson Leenders for his 35th at 18:33, sending the game to the intermission tied 1-1.
Ryerson Leenders was again the story in the middle frame stopping 17 shots in the period. The Nanticoke product’s finest work in the middle frame came off of a Ryan Abraham pass through the middle of the ice that saw Leenders split across the goal line to deny Jack Nesbitt on the initial and A.J. Spellacy on the rebound to keep the game knotted at 1-1. With the Spitfires on the power-play, Leenders again was able to deny the initial two shots from Liam Greentree and Jack Nesbitt but the rebound popped through the crowd in front to Anthony Cristoforo who was able to scoop and toss over Leender’s arm to give the hosts a 2-1 lead at 18:03 they would take to the locker room through 40-minutes.
The Brantford Bulldogs looked a different team coming out for the third period with both the line of Tommy Karmiris, Aiden O’Donnell & Braeden O’Keefe as well as Marek Vanacker having early chances that just wouldn’t squeeze through Joey Costanzo. History would be made however at 15:29 of the third period, with the Bulldogs on a double-minor power-play for high-sticking, Patrick Thomas fired the puck rink wide for Marek Vanacker in the right circle. Vanacker held up letting defenders fly by and opening the lane through the middle of the ice for Nick Lardis who caught the puck on his forehand and whistled a wrister low-blocker side past Joey Costanzo to snatch Arthur Kaliyev’s crown and take the Bulldogs record for single season goal scoring marking his 52nd of the year. On the strength of Lardis’ goal the undermanned Bulldogs forced the West division leaders into overtime.
In the extra session Owen Protz had a play forward stolen by Noah Morneau who was robbed by a brilliant Ryerson Leenders split save at the left post. The puck laid dead just off the pad of the Bulldogs netminder for Ilya Protas to step to and slip into the Bulldogs goal to give the Spitifres a 3-2 overtime win.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Friday night, February 14th hosting the first leg of a home and home with the Niagara IceDogs at the Brantford Civic Centre with a 7:00pm start time.
