PARSONS & LEENDERS GOALIE DUEL ENDS ON PRIDHAM OT STRIKE
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. Opening up 2025 on home ice, the Brantford Bulldogs returned to the Civic Centre on Thursday night to host the Kitchener Rangers in their only meeting of the season in Brantford.
The Bulldogs added a body back to the lineup prior to Thursday night’s game with the return of Zakary Lavoie following a two-game illness absence with the veteran winger joining rookies Josh Avery & Aiden O’Donnell as part of a re-worked Bulldogs third line. The Bulldogs leapt into action in the opening frame with Rangers netminder Jackson Parsons forced into 14 opening period saves, including an incredible save of the year type blocker save on Nick Lardis on a left circle shot to keep the game scoreless. The Bulldogs cracked through at 10:07 with Zakary Lavoie dropping to a flying Owen Protz high on the left side of the Rangers zone before the defenseman found Marek Vanacker through the slot. Collecting and releasing quickly, Vanacker beat Parsons under his arm for his 5th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead they held through the opening period.
The goaltending duel continued into the middle frame with Jackson Parsons making an incredible save on a Bulldogs 2-on-1. Patrick Thomas broke up the rink with Zakary Lavoie to his right, feeding Lavoie as the pair got into the circles. Seeing Parsons on the slide for the shot, Lavoie quickly sent the puck back to Thomas who appeared to have an open side of the goal. Parsons managed to dart back across the crease and squeeze the puck between his pads ahead of the goal line to keep the Rangers down just a goal. Ryerson Leenders wouldn’t be out done, with time running short in the second period, Trent Swick was set in the right circle with a screen infront of the Bulldogs netminder. Releasing a shot to Leenders glove side, Swick looked to be net bound only to have Leenders manage to track the puck through the traffic to make a brilliant glove save, keeping the Bulldogs ahead by a goal through 40 minutes.
It was Leenders turn to write the script of the third period with the Rangers bombarding the Bulldogs goal with 14 shots in the final frame, of which the Bulldogs netminder would stop all but one. After an initial stop on a Max Dirracolo point dirve, Adrian Misaljevic recovered the puck behind the Bulldogs net, showing great patience and feeding Dirracolo darting down from the right point. The Rangers blueliner managed to squeeze a shot over Leenders shoulder and under the crossbar for his 2nd of the season, knotting the game 1-1 at 1:56. With a late power-play the Bulldogs appeared poised to take a lead with Jake O’Brien stepping to the slot between four Rangers defenders, O’Brien backed the defenders off and appeared to have Parsons beat high glove side only to have his shot rattle off the crossbar and the game would head to overtime.
Parsons again came up with an incredible save in the extra frame, after a long out feed from Tomas Hamara found Marek Vanacker at the Rangers blueline on the left side. Vanacker allowed Jake O’Brien to catch up to the play, feeding him on the right side in a 2-on-1 but Parsons came up with another brilliant sliding pad save. Shortly after, Matthew Andonovski set the puck at the side of his net for Jack Pridham who drove the Bulldogs zone with speed off the left and cut middle firing back across to the left side besting Leenders for his 11th of the season at 4:21 of overtime to give the Rangers a 2-1 win.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action on Friday night, January 3rd travelling to the Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia for a 7:00pm matchup with the Sting followed by a home matinee on Sunday, January 5th against the Ottawa 67’s with a 2:00pm start time.
