HAMILTON, ONTARIO. For the first time in nearly three years the Hamilton Bulldogs bus stopped in Owen Sound to finish out the season opening 3-game road trip.
Looking for a better start than the team had in Peterborough, the Bulldogs got exactly what they needed. Back into the lineup, Jorian Donovan took a pass along the offensive zone blueline from right to left from Lucas Moore and let loose a laser through a three-man screen to give them Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at 6:32 with George Diaco collecting the secondary assist. Just 1:59 later, Donovan took the puck on a tour of the offensive zone from the left-wing side around the back of Nick Chenard’s goal, emerging on the right-wing side, Donovan tossed the puck out-front to Patrick Thomas who recorded his 1st of the season at 8:31 to double the Bulldogs lead to 2-0. Before the final period was out, a familiar connection got back together, with Ryan Humphrey on the left-wing side moving the puck through the middle to Logan Morrison finding Avery Hayes through the middle of the ice for Hayes’ 1st of the season at 19:54. On the play leading to the Hayes goal, Ryan Humphrey took an elbow to the head from Attack forward Julian Fantino leading to a 5-minute major for checking to the head that would spill over for 4:54 into the middle frame. The Bulldogs exited the opening period with their 3-0 lead intact with an offensive outburst and 12 saves from Matteo Drobac.
The second period saw more penalites piled on as the Bulldogs ended up with a full 2-minutes of 5-on-3 time and although they didn’t hit the back of the net with that advantage, they did before the major power-play was out. As Jorian Donovan got a quick up to the right-wing side to Logan Morrison who tossed the puck middle for Cole Brown collecting his 2nd of the season at 4:07 giving Hamilton a 4-0 lead. At 7:55 of the second frame, Ryan Humphrey was whistled for a post-whistle cross-check, and was in turn slew-footed by Sam Sedley, leading to a second Attack player being ejected from the game while the ensuing scrum saw Jorian Donovan complete a “Gordie Howe hat-trick” among 6 different penalties on the play. While the Bulldogs were on the major power-play however Owen Sound did get themselves life as Ethan Burroughs jumped on a loose puck in his defensive zone and raced in on a shorthanded breakaway, besting Matteo Drobac to cut the Hamilton lead to 4-1 at 10:24. Drobac kept things tidy the rest of the way, exited the period with the three goal lead after making a series of tremendous stops in a 4-on-3 penalty kill at the end of the second.
Drobac continues his stellar outing in the third, turning aside all 8 shots he faced in the period and 33 of 34 total while the Bulldogs smothered the Attack in the final period to take the 4-1 victory. With the victory, the Bulldogs finish their season opening 3-game road trip with a 2-1-0-0 record to head home.
The Hamilton Bulldogs return to FirstOntario Centre for the home opener tomorrow night, Saturday, October 8th, for a 7:00pm game time with the Oshawa Generals. The night will begin with 5,000 replica championship rings handed out to fans, 4 trophies on the ice and 4 banners raised to the rafters in celebration of the 2022 OHL Championship.
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