UNDERMANNED BULLDOGS DROP SEASON OPENER IN BRAMPTON
BRAMPTON, ONTARIO. The Brantford Bulldogs opened their 2024-25 campaign on Friday night, helping to welcome the City of Brampton back to the Ontario Hockey League providing the opposition for the Steelheads in their home opener.
The Bulldogs lineup featured Nikolas Rossetto & Parker Holmes making their OHL debuts but was missing the likes of Nick Lardis, Aiden O’Donnell, Marek Vanacker & Ben Bujold due to a combination of training camp absence or injury.
Ryerson Leenders took the pipes for the Bulldogs for the first time in a regular season game and was a dominant force in the opening period, turning aside 15 shots, including a brilliant stop on a Carson Rehkopf breakaway to keep the game scoreless. The Steelheads appeared to have an opening goal through Jack Van Volsen on a goal mouth scramble but a challenge from the Bulldogs bench saw the call overturned due to goaltender interference. The Bulldogs best opportunity in the opening frame came on a double minor power-play with Porter Martone in the box for high sticking Calvin Crombie but Jack Ivankovic was able to keep his crease clean through the penalty kill. The Steelheads broke through in the opening period at 19:26 as Porter Martone carried across the top of the left circle rifling a shot through a crowd that got past Leenders and into the Brantford net to put the Steelheads up 1-0 after 20 minutes.
The middle frame saw Leenders make an incredibly early save of the year candidate. With the Steelheads in a mini two-on-one and the puck on the stick of Carson Rehkopf, Leenders slid post to post making a brilliant glove save to keep the Bulldogs in shouting distance, stretching his 6’2” frame to the limit to come up with the puck. Despite Leenders’ attempted heroics the Steelheads struck twice in the middle frame, with Angus MacDonnell striking in a two-on-one with Porter Martone at 13:22, followed by Spencer Sova cahsing in on a breakaway in a 4-on-4 at 18:54. The Bulldogs had their opportunity to cut into the lead but Cole Brown’s breakaway backhand was denied by Ivankovic to send the Steelheads down the tunnel after 40 minutes.
The third period got away from the young Bulldogs lineup with the Steelheads striking for four, Carson Rehkopf led the charge at 0:34 seconds, followed by Luke Misa at 6:12, William Eggleton on a defensive zone turnover at 7:56 & Gabriel Chiarot at 18:05 to round out the scoring in a 7-0 Steelheads win.
The Brantford Bulldogs will return home on Saturday, September 28th, to host the rival Oshawa Generals for the team’s home opener presented by Adkins Financial, with a start time of 7:00pm at the Brantford Civic Centre.
