O’BRIEN STARS, DROBAC SAVES AS DOGS DROP ATTACK 5-2
OWEN SOUND, ONTARIO. Finishing up a two-game road trip, the Bulldogs made their only visit of the season to the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre on Saturday night to meet captain Colby Barlow and the Owen Sound Attack.
The first period was all Brantford, beginning with Matteo Drobac, building on what he saw battery mate David Egorov do a night before, turning aside all 14 shots he faced in the opening frame. Two of Drobac’s best both coming off the stick of Cedrick Guindon, first with the Bulldogs on the power-play, Guindon turned out of the right-wing corner, crashing the front of the net only to see Drobac split across the netmouth to deny the chance. The second came with Guindon bareing down the slot and Drobac turning the shot aside and smothering the puck in the crease. The Bulldogs offense rewarded their netminder’s work at 3:19. Luca Testa knocked down an attempted pass behind the Owen Sound goal, sliding the puck to the front of the goal where Jake O’Brien snapped a shot past Corbin Votary for his 2nd of the season giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Brantford doubled the lead at 6:43, with Marek Vanacker crashing down the right wing half boards he flipped the puck to Jake O’Brien who slid a backhand pass through the Attack defender to Jorian Donovan with the defenseman finding the back of the net for his 2nd of the season. The Bulldogs continued to pour it on at 8:18 with Patrick Thomas finding Nick Lardis in the right circle who in turn played provider, feeding Florian Xhekaj through the middle to strike for his 3rd of the season and give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead they would take to the intermission and cause the Attack to replace Corbin Votary with Carter George.
The middle frame started with one of the strangest goals of the year in the OHL. Bulldogs forward Luca Testa hopped on a loose puck and carried straight into the Attack zone, sending a shot to goal that Carter George blockered up into the air. As if it were a pop fly, the puck fell right back out of the sky into the crease, deflecting off George’s pants into the net for Testa’s 3rd of the season at 4:47 giving the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead. The Attack clawed back into the game, first at 7:46, after Ethan Burroughs appeared to interefere with Daniel Chen on a puck that was looped to the Bulldogs blueline, Colby Barlow fed the puck back to Burroughs who hit the back of the net for his 3rd of the season making it a 4-1 game. At 12:53, Colby Barlow kept the puck loose just inside the Bulldogs blueline, Burroughs swept onto the puck, carried it wide and found just a couple inches of space over Drobac’s blocker to get the Attack to within a pair at 4-2. Drobac took the period back over from there, stopping 10 of 12 in the period, including denying Colby Barlow on a 2-on-1 just prior to time running out in the period and leading the Bulldogs down the tunnel with a 4-2 lead.
The final frame continued to see Matteo Drobac stand tall, stopping all 11 he faced in the period. The Bulldogs put the game on ice just 2:11 into the third, with captain Lawson Sherk streaking down the left wing and locating Marek Vanacker through the slot. Vanacker dusted off the puck and hammered a shot over George and under the back bar for his 3rd of the season to give the Dogs a 5-2 lead they would not relinquish. With the win the Bulldogs sweep the weekend back to back road trip and collect all four points, with 10 different Bulldogs having at least a point in the game on Friday night and 8 hitting the scoresheet on Saturday.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action hosting the North Bay Battalion on Friday, October 27th at the Brantford Civic Centre with a 7:00pm start time.
