HAMILTON, ONTARIO. After a well fought game Friday night that saw the Bulldogs fall just short in overtime, the team looked to get back on the horse and even the series with a Game 2 victory. 
power Bulldogs to Game 2 win
The first frame started off with a bang with a tussle between Arber Xhekaj and Andrew Perrott that brought a raucous FirstOntario Centre crowd to their feet. Despite the crowd advantage, it was Windsor who broke through first on the power-play with Louka Henault firing his 4th of the playoffs at 4:45 and putting the pressure on the Bulldogs. Just before the halfway mark of the opening period, the Bulldogs appeared to find their footing with Jorian Donovan ringing the crossbar and continuing to put strong shifts back-to-back. Shortly after the Donovan crossbar, Hamilton got to the power-play with Mason McTavish ripping a bullet from the bottom of the righthand circle that picked up a deflection and dipped 5-hole on Xavier Medina for his 11th of the playoffs at 12:31 off the pass of Logan Morrison with Avery Hayes picking up the secondary assist. The dynamic duo of Morrison and Hayes next put the Bulldogs up 2-1 at 14:21 with Ryan Humphrey picking up the secondary helper as the puck hopped on Morrison’s initial shot attempt but the talented center was able to spin it over to Hayes for the top shelf finish, spelling the end of the first period for Xavier Medina as he was replaced by Mathias Onuska. At 15:51 the Bulldogs expanded the lead with Ethan Sims & Artem Grushnikov working a zone exit and Grushnikov sending Lawson Sherk in on the Windsor goal, even with a defender draped on his back, Sherk was able to fire the puck over Onuska’s glove for his 2nd of the playoffs. With 20 minutes gone in Game 2, the Bulldogs held a needed 3-1 advantage.
Starting off the second frame with the man-advantage the Bulldogs, saw Xavier Media return to the Spitfires’ goal but were pressed by an aggressive Windsor penalty-kill forcing Marco Costantini to come up big with three game stopping saves. At the halfway point on the power-play, Morrison, off a Xhekaj pass, set partner in crime Hayes loose in the bottom of the left circle where Hayes hinged and fired 5-hole to beat Medina sending the Bulldogs 3 goals up to make it 4-1 on his second of the game and 11th of the playoffs. Windsor answered back to cut the lead in half at 16:26 through Matthew Maggio’s 6th of the playoffs on the power-play pulling momentum back to the Western Champions. With time ticking down on the middle frame, Artem Grushnikov sent Avery Hayes ahead on a zone exit, the winger cut along the blueline dropping the puck through his feet to Arber Xhekaj who carried down the right-wing side and tossed a backhand bar-down over Medina’s shoulder to give the Bulldogs a 5-2 advantage at 19:41.
Starting the final frame in control of the game the Bulldogs kept the first half of the period quiet with Costantini coming with a glove save on a door-step deflection. The comeback was cued for the Spitfires after they used their timeout and pulled Medina for a 6-on-5 with better than 5 minutes to go. The aggressive decision paid off as Andrew Perrot’s point drive deflected off a stick in the slot and changed directions past Costantini at 15:05. Just :36 seconds later, Daniel D’Amico fed Matthew Maggio in front of the Hamilton net for his second of the game and sending it to a wild finish at 15:41. Through the work of the likes of Costantini, Grushnikov, Xhekaj, Sherk, McTavish, Morrison & co. the Bulldogs were able to make the 1-goal lead hold despite a furious late press and even the series 1-1 with a 5-4 Game 2 victory.
The Bulldogs are headed down to Windsor tomorrow night for a 7:00 pm showdown with the Spitfires in Game 3 at the WFCU Centre.
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