The Road Ahead: November 29 – December 2
The Brantford Bulldogs look to continue a recent run up the standings with three games in the week ahead. Having captured 15 of the last 18 possible points, running a 7-1-1 record over the last two weeks, the Bulldogs open this week hosting the Niagara IceDogs on Wednesday followed by their only trip of the season to Sarnia on Friday to meet the Sting & ending an afternoon visit from the Oshawa Generals on Saturday.
Entering the game on Wednesday night the Bulldogs will look to make it an incredible 21 straight victories over the Niagara IceDogs dating back to the 2019-20 season. The Bulldogs swept the last four meetings of the 2019-20 season, captured all 8 in the 2021-22 season, followed up sweeping the 6 meetings in the 2022-23 season and have taken both meetings to open the 2023-24 season. In Brantford on November 10th the Bulldogs skated away with a 5-3 victory followed by a 6-3 win at the Meridian Centre on November 18th. The Bulldogs scoring in the previous meetings has been spread around impressively with 17 different players posting at least a point, while Marek Vanacker leads the way with 5 points followed closely by Nick Lardis at 4 and Florian Xhekaj & Ben Bujold who have each put up 3. Matteo Drobac has won both games against the IceDogs on the season, having allowed just 6 goals and is in the middle of a run where he has only given up 4 goals in his last 3 starts.
On Friday night the Bulldogs will head to the Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia for their only trip of the season to take on the Sting. The meeting will also close out the season series after the Bulldogs knocked off the Sting 6-3 on November 15th. Sarnia raced out to 1-0 & 3-2 leads in the first meeting at the Brantford Civic Centre, but 4 unanswered goals from the Bulldogs from the 9:22 mark of the 2nd period sailed the Dogs to the victory. Nick Lardis led the way for the Dogs on that evening with 3 points while Tomas Hamara & Patrick Thomas each put up a pair of assists.
It will be a fast turn around for the Bulldogs when they host the Oshawa Generals for a 4:00pm Saturday afternoon start. The game with the Generals will mark the 4th of 8 meetings in the 2023-24 season between the East Division rivals. The Bulldogs enter the Saturday affair holding a 2-1-0-0 advantage in the season series, posting a 5-2 win on October 7th in the home opener, followed by a 5-1 victory on in Oshawa on October 20th. The Generals reversed their fortunes in the most recent meeting, a 6-2 win on November 5th. Nick Lardis leads the season series for the Bulldogs with 4 points in the 3 meetings, having recorded at least a point in each game, while youngsters Calvin Crombie, Masen Wray & Daniel Chen each posted a 2-point game in the October 20th meeting.
The Bulldogs Wednesday and Saturday home games will be broadcast on Rogers TV20 & heard on the Bulldogs Audio Network, while their Friday road game will be broadcast on Rogers 430 and heard on the Bulldogs Audio Network.
The Brantford Bulldogs Road Ahead is presented by Strickland’s GM Brantford!