VANACKER & XHEKAJ CLOSE THE STABLES AS DOGS DOWN COLTS 4-3
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO. Closing a back to back weekend with the team’s final trip to Barrie of the season, the Brantford Bulldogs entered Saturday night looking to collect three of four points on the weekend. Bulldogs leading scorer Nick Lardis was a late scratch prior to puck drop with the absence expected to only be the single game.
Minus Lardis, and Patrick Thomas who remained unavailable, the Bulldogs offense picked itself up in the opening frame bringing a torrent of offense to the goal of recent WJC gold medalist Sam Hillebrandt. Beginning at 2:08, Jake O’Brien on the left wing boards laid the puck back to the left point for Cedricsson Okitundu to blast a drive to the net. Hillebrandt made the initial stop with the rebound bouncing out to an unmarked Marek Vanacker who slammed in his 18th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. After a successful penalty kill and a brilliant David Egorov diving save, the Bulldogs extended the lead at 8:41. Zakary Lavoie carried the puck through the middle of the offensive zone, dropping off for Owen Protz who skated through the left circle and ripped his 1st as a Bulldog and 2nd of the season pushing the lead to 2-0. The Colts answered back at 9:53 off a defensive zone turnover for the Bulldogs that saw Roenick Jodoin race in on David Egorov and toss puck top corner for his 10th of the season cutting the lead to 2-1. The Bulldogs bounced back on a major power-play after Evan Passmore was given a match penalty for checking from behind. Marek Vanacker raced up the left wing side, crossing into the offensive zone and sending a pass cross-ice to Jake O’Brien who pulled a pair of penalty killers to him in the right circle before sending it net front to Florian Xhekaj on the tic-tac-goal finish for Xhekaj’s 14th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead at 15:45. After Ben Bujold was cut by a Bode Stewart high stick in the latter stages of the frame the Bulldogs went to a double-minor power-play. Tomas Hamara spread the puck off the top for Florian Xhekaj who’s right circle shot was tipped by Marek Vanacker net front for his 19th of the season and 2nd of the game at 19:38 to close the first period with the Bulldogs holding a 4-1 lead.
After a five goal opening period, the middle frame was much quieter with just a pair over the 20-minutes that came within 49 seconds and brought the Colts back into the game. On the power-play at 2:55, Kashawn Aitcheson worked the puck over to Beau Jelsma on the left side, the puck spread middle off a deflection and rolled to Cole Beaudoin, firing a shot that snuck under the arm of David Egorov for his 19th of the campaign giving the Colts life at a 4-2 score. Just 49-seconds later at 3:44, Michael Derbidge deflected his 1st of the season past Egorov off a Jack Brauti net front pass to pull the Colts to within one at 4-3. The Colts fed off the momentum, out-shooting the Bulldogs 13-6 in the middle frame, with David Egorov turning aside 11 in the period and 21 total through 40 minutes. The Bulldogs had their best chance of the period late with Marek Vanacker feeding the puck across the front of the net for Florian Xhekaj with Hillebrandt diving across the goal line to try to recover. The puck skipped over Xhekaj’s stick to keep the game at a 4-3 score into the 2nd intermission.
Sam Hillebrandt made himself the story of the final frame, turning aside 21 Brantford Bulldogs shots to give his Colts an opportunity to equalize. It wasn’t without controversy with 8:44 left in the game, Florian Xhekaj tipped down a Daniil Sobolev drive past Hillebrandt. The play was reviewed for a high stick and though it appeared the contact was made as Xhekaj’s stick was moving downward and below the bar, the goal was waived off keeping it a 4-3 game. A pair of late David Egorov saves in the final minute made the difference, including a sliding stop on Colts’ captain Beau Jelsma with 30 seconds to play, as Egorov stopped 28 of 31 to earn the 4-3 win and gain 3 of 4 available points on the weekend.
The Bulldogs return to home ice on Wednesday, January 17th, hosting the Oshawa Generals at the Civic Centre with puck drop coming at 7:00pm.
