HAMILTON, ONTARIO. The Bulldogs met the North Bay Battalion for the third time this season, looking to extend their win streak to 5. Coming off a stellar family day performance on Monday, the team welcomed back Olympian Mason McTavish to the lineup while Lucas Moore moved to the wing in the absences of Hayes, Biondi & Duarte.
The first period the Bulldogs wasted no time to breaking the ice, just 35 seconds in with McTavish ripping a shot from the blue line to get his 10th of the season from the work of Logan Morrison and Arber Xhekaj. With the first goal in hand the Bulldogs looked to keep control of the play and did just that by spending most of their time in the Batalion’s end forcing Joe Vrbetic to stand tall for his team. Ryan Winterton digging deep on a long shift collected the puck in the right-wing corner twisting it out front for Morrison to pickpocket the Battalion defense to get his 21st of the season 14:18 doubling the Bulldogs lead. The Hamilton press continued through the frame as George Diaco pushed his stick through 2 North Bay players, dealing the puck from below the goal line to Ryan Humphrey out front for his 15th of the season at 15:29 with Jan Mysak picking up the secondary helper. With Marco Costantini keeping the door shut in the Bulldogs end, Hamilton ended the opening 20 with a 3-0 lead.
The second period opened with Matvey Petrov collecting a sneak-away pass behind the Bulldogs defense and flying in alone only for Marco Costantini to shut him down with a brilliant blocker stop. While 4-on-4, McTavish capitalized on the extra ice, walking past the blue line to rip it passed Vrbetic for his 11th of the season and 2nd of the game with Morrison and Nathan Staios picking up the assists at 10:30 to push the lead to 4-0. The Battalion weren’t gassed yet with Kyle McDonald gaining possession to break the shutout of Costantini at 15:54 to closing the Bulldogs lead to 4-1, heading to the locker rooms after 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs opened the third testing Vrbetic with 3 quick opportunities before Gavin White ripped the 4th one home from the blue line to put the Bulldogs up 5-1 for his 6th of the season with Cole Brown and Lawson Sherk picking up the helpers at 2:30. Owen Van Steensel answers right back for the Battalion at 4:25 on a controversial play that may have been a high stick. Nearing the halfway mark of the final frame Morrison found himself in front of the net for the rebound of the shot of Artem Grushnikov, banking the puck off a Battalion defender for his 2nd goal of the game, and 4th point, at 9:47 with Mason McTavish picking up the secondary helper, his 3rd point of the night. Before the game was Grushnikov hammered a shot top shelf from the blue line for his 2nd point of the game and 2nd of the season from White and Humphrey at 13:06. On the strength of another offensive explosion and 25 Marco Costantini saves, the Bulldogs finish the night extending their win streak to 5 with a 7-2 win.
The Hamilton Bulldogs are back home tonight for a 4:00pm matinée to face off against the Ottawa 67s at the FirstOntario Centre.
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