SIX DIFFERENT GOAL SCORERS LEAD BULLDOGS TO GAME 1 WIN
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs welcomed the beginning of the playoffs on Friday night in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd at the Brantford Civic Centre as the top seed in the Eastern Conference hosted the 8th seed North Bay Battalion for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. The series is the first between the two teams since the 2022 Eastern Conference Final that saw the Bulldogs win in 4 en route to the Robertson Cup.
The Bulldogs got a dream start in the opening frame, just 2:34 into the game, Marek Vanacker shifted the puck in the right-wing corner for Jake O’Brien along the end boards. Locating Nikolas Rossetto down the slot, O’Brien delivered to the rookie who snapped the puck past Mike McIvor scoring his 1st OHL Playoff goal in his 1st OHL Playoff game. Ryerson Leenders was in form early, denying a chance at the side of the net that snuck through, diving across his crease to stop the rolling puck as part of his 10 opening period stops. After a scrum in front of the Bulldogs bench during a penalty kill, the Bulldogs went to the power-play. With just two-seconds left on the man advantage, Josh Avery won the puck back to Thomas Budnick at the left point, who turned it right for Lucas Moore to fire through a crowd at the North Bay goal for his 1st of the playoffs and a 2-0 Bulldogs lead at 8:11. The hosts rounded out the scoring just over two-minutes later with Marek Vanacker winning the puck on the right-wing side and feeding Calvin Crombie over the North Bay blueline where the Bulldogs winger pulled and fired past McIvor for his 1st of the post-season at 10:58 to take a 3-0 advantage that the Bulldogs held to the intermission.
The Battalion garnered some momentum in the middle frame at 10:28 as Nick Wellenreiter’s initial rush was held off by Ryerson Leenders before Lirim Amidovski arrived on the scene to hammer in his 1st of the playoffs and cut the lead to 3-1 at 10:28 giving a boost to the visitors. The Bulldogs took the wind out of the sails once again at 12:34 with Nick Lardis on a rush up on the right side, cutting middle and feeding into the left circle for Cole Brown who sent it across the front of the goal onto the tape of captain Patrick Thomas to make it a 4-1 Bulldogs lead. Leenders came up big in the Bulldogs pipes again denying a Jacob LeBlanc rush before a show stopping save on an Andrew LeBlanc follow-up to keep the gap at three and once again his teammates fed off of it. On the power-play at 15:05, Tomas Hamara from the top of the umbrella fed into the right circle for Patrick Thomas who quickly whipped it cross-ice to the left circle to a wide-open Jake O’Brien who one-timmed the offering past McIvor for his 1st of the playoffs, giving the Bulldogs a 5-1 lead. The Battalion refused to quit and got one back before the frame was out. After Shamar Moses batted the puck around back of the Bulldogs net, Kent Greer set it to the blueline on the right side for Nick Wellenreiter charging off the North Bay bench to rifle through a screen for his 1st of the post-season at 17:25, getting the Troops to within three at 5-2 heading to the intermission.
The third period was a relatively quiet affair until the latter stages when the visitors tightened some collars around the Civic Centre. On the power-play at 17:24, Shamar Moses fired the puck from the right point, Leenders made the initial stop, but the puck jumped right to Jacob Therrien standing just inside the left-circle who managed to knock it into the net to pull North Bay within a pair. The race to the final horn was on from there with Mike McIvor pulled to the Battalion bench, earning a clear, Nick Lardis beat out an icing to the North Bay zone but efforts from he and Cole Brown were off the side of the goal. As the Battalion looked to clear the puck, Lardis was able to bat it down in neutral ice and carry back over the line before firing it into the empty net for his 1st of the playoffs at 18:25, finishing off a 6-3 Game 1 win to take a 1-0 series lead.
The Brantford Bulldogs will look to hold home ice on Sunday, March 30th when they host the North Bay Battalion at the Brantford Civic Centre in Game 2 of this Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with puck drop coming just after 7:00pm.
