OH CAPTAIN’ OUR CAPTAIN! SHERK’S PAIR LEADS DOGS BACK TO TOP SPOT
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs opened up a 3-in-3 weekend facing the Sudbury Wolves in a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Friday night’s matchup marked the 4th and final meeting of the 2023-24 season between these two teams, with the home side having won each of the first three contests.
The Bulldogs opened the night with a boost as they welcomed back Patrick Thomas to the lineup, returning from an 11-game absence due toillness illness. The Bulldogs also welcomed back former teammate Noah Van Vliet who skated in his first game against the Bulldogs since January 9th trade which saw the veteran defenseman trade jerseys with now Bulldog, Owen Protz, who also faced his former mates for the first time. The Wolves jumped on the scoreboard quickly, just 2:29 into the game with Nathan Villeneuve stealing a Tomáš Hamara neutral zone pass to score a shorthanded goal, his 13th of the season, setting the visitors out to a 1-0 lead. The Wolves doubled their lead on the power-play at 12:48. Evan Konyen knocked in his 20th of the season off of a rebound from Nick DeAngelis shot, where Konyen was able to tuck it around the right pad of Matteo Drobac to give the Wolves a 2-0 lead. After 12 combined penalty minutes in the opening frame, the game hit the locker room with the Wolves holding a 2-0 advantage after 20 minutes.
The middle frame saw tempers flare to even higher degree than the first but the Bulldogs used it to their advantage mounting a second period comeback. It began at 6:24 when the Bulldogs cut into the Wolves lead on a 5-on-3 power play. Tomas Hamara set Zakary Lavoie who placed a shot on net where Jake O’Brien was able to locate a rebound falling out of the Sudbury netminder’s equipment and put it into the back of Jakub Vondras’ net to record his 8th of the season. At 7:13 the Bulldogs knotted the game at 2-2 withn Tomas Hamara rescuing a puck on the left wing side, tossing it low to Adrian Rebelo. Charging below the left circle, Rebelo set up Lawson Sherk right at the goal mouth to score his 6th of the season on a tip over Vondras. With the physical tempo amping up after the tying goal Florian Xhekaj squared up against former teammate Noah Van Vliet at 8:42, with the Bulldogs gaining a power play advantage with Landon McCallum being nabbed for a roughing penalty in the fray. The Bulldogs struck once again on the man advantage to take their first lead of the game at 9:24. Marek Vanacker worked the puck low in a triangle set to Jake O’Brien who managed to handle the puck from skate to stick and direct it back through the legs of a Wolves defender and through Vondras’ crease to Patrick Thomas who hammered in his 10th of the season in his return to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead they would take to the locker room after 40 minutes. As the buzzer sounded, Zakary Lavoie took a high elbow from Nathan Villeneuve which started off a series of confrontations that led the Bulldogs to start the final frame short handed and ended with Cedricsson Okitundu & Alex Pharand each being issued game misconducts.
While shorthanded to open the third, Lawson Sherk wouldn’t be stopped, scoring his 2nd goal of the game & 7th of the season shorthanded as the Bulldogs captain stole the puck at the Brantford blueline and raced in, sliding the puck to his backhand and lifting it over a sprawled Vondras to give the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead, just 21-seconds into the period. After a brilliant Matteo Drobac stop on a Kocha Delic breakaway, the Bulldogs received some insurance. Florian Xhekaj rifled his 18th of the season from a shot off of the left circle at 14:48 from Marek Vanacker to give the Bulldogs a 5-2 lead. The Wolves found one more with the net empty and Dalibor Dvorsky long distance dart striking the top corner at 18:30 but it was as close as they would get with the Bulldogs taking a 5-3 lead and moving back to top spot in the Conference.
The Bulldogs continue their 3-in-3 weekend and return to action at home tomorrow, February 3rd, welcoming the North Bay Battalion to town with puck drop at 4:00pm.
