O’BRIEN THE OT HERO IN BULLDOGS 5-4 COMEBACK VICTORY IN OSHAWA
OSHAWA, ONTARIO. Opening a busy three-in-three weekend with a trip to Oshawa, 125 total points were missing from the Friday night clash with Nick Lardis unavailable for the Bulldogs due to illness and Beckett Sennecke suspended for a game, but the Bulldogs welcomed back Parker Holmes after a six week absence to their lineup.
Facing off with the best home ice team in the Eastern Conference, 16-4-1-0 for the Generals on home ice, the Bulldogs got a dream start. Just 1:39 in the game, Marek Vanacker held the puck at the left point after Jake O’Brien was able to slide it back and found Adam Jiricek cutting through the slot. With a quick catch and release, Jiricek fired through Jacob Oster for his 3rd of the season to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. The Bulldogs poured on the pressue with a Jake O’Brien tip that struck the post and Oster forced into making a tremendous left to right sliding stop to keep the Bulldogs from extending the lead. The work of Oster paid off for the Generals at 11:58 with the hosts on the power-play, Noah Powell had his initial shot blocked off in the left circle but bounced right back to him as he carried into the slot and fired a shot through Ryerson Leenders for his 1st in the OHL to tie the game 1-1. Lauri Sinivuori took the lead for the Generals off a nifty short side post feed from Owen Griffin for his 11th of the season at 15:30 giving the Generals a 2-1 lead. At 19:05 the Generals capped off the first period with Owen Griffin dropping the puck to Lauri Sinivuori whose initial shot was blocked off by a sprawling Ryerson Leenders only to have the puck fall for Luke Torrence who deposited the puck for his 15th of the season to take a 3-1 lead down the tunnel through 20 minutes.
The Bulldogs answered back in the middle frame, getting to the power-play at 1:51 with Tomas Hamara handling the puck high and laying it over to the right for Adam Jiricek who drew a defender to the top of the right circle allowing the Bulldogs defenseman to lay it in low for Cole Brown who twisted to his backhand and tucked his shot under the crossbar for his 16th of the season to pull the Bulldogs back to within one at 3-2. Cole Brown followed with a shot that appeared to hit the curvature of the back crossbar, but officials were never able to clearly see the puck over the goal line, keeping it 3-2. Ryerson Leenders did his part with 10 saves in the middle frame including a save of the year candidate with the Bulldogs netminder sprawling to make an initial stop that bounced right back to Zachary Sandhu where Leenders reached back with the paddle of his stick and stole one away from Sandhu. The Bulldogs made it pay off after Daniel Chen stole the puck in the offensive zone, threw a reverse hit on Tyler O’Toole and slid it on to Josh Avery who carried into the right circle and beat Oster with a no look shot through the five-hole for his 8th of the season tying the game 3-3 at 11:24, where the game stood through 40 minutes.
In the third period the game tightened up considerably with both teams looking for a slight edge to pick up the pair of points. The Generals had the first chance to push the game in their direction with Noah Nelson called for a high sticking double minor on Luke Torrence. Ryerson Leenders and the Bulldogs killers did a spectacular job shutting down the league’s 3rd ranked power-play, and forcing Jacob Oster into a tremendous shorthanded pad save on Patrick Thomas. With the Bulldogs on a power-play of their own at 11:54, the visitors took the lead. Marek Vanacker sent Jake O’Brien forward into the right circle where the centerman turned the puck through his stride at the bottom of the circle to Patrick Thomas on the left side for his 18th of the season giving the Bulldogs the 4-3 lead. Oshawa found an answer at 13:11 with Lauri Sinivuori capitalizing on blown coverage in the Brantford zone to locate Owen Griffin net front to tie the game 4-4 leading the Bulldogs back to overtime.
In the extra session after a Leenders save on Colby Barlow, the Bulldogs took territorial dominance, eventually leading Luca Testa to feed Adam Jiricek off the right side, finding Jake O’Brien in the left circle for rocket into the Oshawa goal giving the Bulldogs a 5-4 victory.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action hosting the back half of the home & home on Saturday afternoon with a 4:00pm start time.