HAMILTON, ONTARIO. The Bulldogs kicked off a 3-game home stand on Wednesday night that will span both sides of the Christmas break. Coming off the high of the win against Ottawa last weekend the Bulldogs were looking for a repeat tonight against the Mississauga Steelheads. The line-ups looked a little different tonight with Jan Mysak headed off to the World Juniors and with five injured players, the Bulldogs saw a lot of new faces including the newest addition to the team Braeden O’Keefe.
Logan Morrison kicked the period off by scoring not even a minute in for his 10th of the year, on a tremendous backhand move in front of the net from Gavin White and Avery Hayes. The Bulldogs were able to set the pace of the period to create chances but after a high hit that knocked Alex Pharand out of the game and resulted in 17 minutes of penalties to Gavin White for instigating, couldn’t hold down the fort and James Hardie managed to squeeze one past Marco Costantini at 16:08 to end the period at an even 1-1 score. Â
To start the second period both teams kept pace looking break the tie, which came through the Steelheads leading scorer. At 7:31 Hardie broke the deadlock to get his second of the game and give the Steelheads a one goal lead. The Bulldogs kept to their game by leaning into their feet and getting physical to regain control of the game. With over a minute left the Steelheads scored once more to give them a 3-1 lead and Michael Stubbs his first goal of the season to end the period. After 40 minutes the Bulldogs are looking to regroup for the third period starting with a full 2-minute powerplay.
The Bulldogs powerplay wound up starting off the third period on back-to-back chances creating lots of chances but couldn’t capitalize to get a puck past Joe Ranger. At 4:38 Chas Sharpe scored to give the Steelheads a little breathing room with a three-goal spread between them and the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs powerplay unit saw a lot of ice in the frame and managed to keep the play in the Steelheads zone but was unable to come out with a goal despite several chances created from the low zone work of Morrison, Hayes, Humphrey & Sherk. The Bulldogs fought hard to comeback but fell short 4-1 after the final horn.
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