THE ROAD AHEAD: NOVEMBER 29TH & 30TH
The Hamilton Bulldogs will have a pair of Eastern Conference rivals this weekend as the Peterborough Petes will come to the FirstOntario Centre for the second time in just over a week on Friday, November 29th, before the team will travel to the newly named Sadlon Centre in Barrie to challenge the Colts on Saturday, November 30th.
Entering the weekend the Hamilton Bulldogs sit tied for 5th place in the OHL’s Eastern Conference with a 12-13-1-0 record for 25 points through 26 games, Peterborough meanwhile sits in a tie for 1st place in the East with Ottawa, holding a 16-6-1-1 record and totalling 34 points through 24 games while the Barrie Colts are the team in the 5th place deadlock with the Bulldogs holding a 12-8-0-1 record but having only played just 21 games so far this season.
The Bulldogs come into the weekend off a successful previous weekend with a 4-0 shutout victory over the North Bay Battalion followed by a thrilling 4-3 shootout win over the Guelph Storm and have evened things out from a rocky start to the season, sitting at 5-5-0-0 over their last 10 and a strong 11-8-1-0 across the team’s last 20. Peterborough have continued their impressive form from the start of the season, on a 2-0-0-1 run and having gone 6-2-1-1 over their past 10 they will be a tough opponent to handle while Barrie have see recent ups and downs, on an 0-2-0-0 run but still 6-4-0-0 over their last 10.
Neither team are strangers to the Bulldogs so far this season, having already both twice. Peterborough has bested Hamilton twice but both have been razor thin margins of victory. A 4-3 victory in Peterborough on October 17th & a 4-3 victory in Hamilton on November 20th give the Petes a 2-0-0-0 mark in the season series but the Bulldogs have held leads in both games. Captain Zach Gallant has led the way for the Petes in the season series thus far with 3 goals in the two games while Jan Jenik, Arthur Kaliyev & Nathan Staios have each recorded 3 points in the two previous meetings.
The Bulldogs have seen much better fortune against the Barrie Colts to this point in the season, holding a 2-0-0-0 mark in the season series with a 7-5 victory on October 14th & a 5-4 victory on October 30th with both games having been played at FirstOntario Centre. Hamilton has received big efforts from their “big four” offensively in games against Colts. Jan Jenik & Arthur Kaliyev lead the way, each holding 7 points through 2 contests while Logan Morrison has picked up 5 points and Tag Bertuzzi notched 3 across the previous pair of meetings. Jenik leads the Bulldogs in goals against the Colts with 4 followed closely by Kaliyev with 3.
Coming into the weekend Arthur Kaliyev sits at 109 goals scored in the OHL, just 6 behind Matt Strome’s team record of 115. Jan Jenik has blown past the field in Bulldogs and currently hold the record for most points-per-game at 1.60 having surpassed Robert Thomas’ previous record of 1.32. Bulldogs center Bradey Johnson will continue to close in on his 200th OHL game, coming into the weekend with 184 games played.
