WAINWRIGHT TAKES OVER FINAL FRAME AS DOGS FALL 4-1 IN SARNIA
SARNIA, ONTARIO. Following their wildly entertaining Thursday night meeting the Kitchener Rangers to open up 2025, the Brantford Bulldogs hit the road for their only visit of the season to the Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia, taking on the Sting.
The Bulldogs continued the positive news on the health front to open up the night receiving the services of defenseman Niko Krmpotic back following a month-long absence. David Egorov received the start in the second half of the back-to-back and was strong early with the Bulldogs having to kill an early first period penalty to Tomas Hamara that saw Egorov deny a couple of Mitch Young screen shot attempts. Bulldogs best opportunity of the frame came off the stick of Marek Vanacker after Josh Avery sent him loose on a shorthanded breakaway but was denied by Nick Surzycia. With the Bulldogs on a late frame power-play, Jake O’Brien set Cole Brown in the slot for a quick snapshot but was again denied by Surzycia as part of his nine saves in the opening period sending the game scoreless to the intermission.
The ice was broken in the middle period with the Sting on the power-play in controversial fashion. After David Egorov handled an a strange kick plate bounce that came back to the front of the net off a Ruslan Karimov shot. Zach Filak pitchforked the Bulldogs netminder over the goal line. Initially the play was called dead and reviewed after an extended period where it was overturned to a goal. The Bulldogs challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the call was held as a goal to the ire of the Bulldogs bench, giving the Sting a 1-0 lead at 7:41. It appeared the Sting had taken a two goal lead after another bounce off the end boards came back to the front of Egorov’s goal but this one was overturned on review due to interference keeping the game 1-0. The Bulldogs evened the game at 13:03, with Calvin Crombie winning a physical battle for the puck on the left side of neutral ice and playing forward for Jake O’Brien in a 2-on-1 with Marek Vanacker where O’Brien delivered a perfect pass for a perfect shot from Vanacker for his 6th of the season, tying game 1-1. David Egorov was asked for a little more heroics before the frame was out, after making an initial stop on Daylen Moses with his mask, the rebound shot to Kaeden Johnston who fired towards an open net just to be thwarted by an incredible split save from the Bulldogs netminder, keeping the game 1-1 through 40 minutes.
The Sting bolted back into the lead, striking just :28 seconds into the final frame with Dylan Luecke recording his 3rd of the season off an Easton Wainwright faceoff win and a point shot from Jack O’Brien that Luecke knocked over David Egorov. The Bulldogs worked furiously to even the score but Nick Surzycia continued to hold the Bulldogs at bay. Denying a brilliant Cole Brown back door chance in the third period as part of his 29 saves on the night. Easton Wainwright extended the lead at 16:10 in a 2-on-1 with Alessandro Di Iorio besting Egorov from the inside of the left circle for his 10th of the season. Despite nearly two and a half minutes of zone time 6-on-5 the Bulldogs just couldn’t draw closer with Ryan Brown hitting the empty net at 19:59 for his 11th of the season to close it out in a 4-1 win for the Sting.
The Brantford Bulldogs return to action with a home matinee on Sunday, January 5th against the Ottawa 67’s with a 2:00pm start time.
