HAMILTON, ONTARIO. The Hamilton Bulldogs were back on the ice Friday for their only game of the weekend, meeting the North Bay Battalion for the first time in 161 days when the Bulldogs put Bobby on the Bus and won the Eastern Conference.
North Bay opened the scoring a mere 3 minutes into the contest after Oilers prospect Matvey Petrov cleaned up a juicy rebound off the shot of Nikita Tarasevich to take an early 1-0 lead. Closing in on the midway point of the period, Kyle Jackson of North Bay was able to pick up a loose puck and get behind Hamilton’s defense, but netminder Matteo Drobac shut the five-hole and then sprawl across to his glove side to keep the rebound out keeping it a one goal game. With 1:29 remaining in the period, Ty Nelson was called for a cross-check and Hamilton got the first powerplay of the night. Despite a couple chances to the goal, the Bulldogs weren’t able to crack rookie Battalion goaltender Charlie Robertson and took 31-seconds of power-play time to the second.
As the middle frame began the Battalion were able to clear the puck down the length of the ice twice to kill off the Nelson minor and halt the Bulldogs pressure for a tying goal. Just over 3 minutes in, North Bay’s Nikita Tarasevich tried to squeeze away from a Bulldogs defender who hauled him down, seeing Tarasevich awarded a penalty shot. Drobac came far out of the crease to challenge him, while Battalion winger tried to outwait Drobac and tuck it in far side to no avail with the Bulldogs goaltender running the shifty forward out of room. With 11:44 left in the second, Hamilton’s Lucas Moore turned and fired a shot on net from the blue line and captain Logan Morrison got his stick up and tipped it past Charlie Robertson to tie the game 1-1 on Morrison’s 4th of the season, moving the captain to within 4-points of passing Brandon Saigeon for 3rd all-time in Bulldogs scoring. As the period wound down to 4:20 left, a Bulldogs defensive turnover led to Battalion captain Liam Arnsby receiving the puck and sending it over to Kyle McDonald who snapped it into the net for his 6th of the season, and North Bay regained their lead making it a 2-1 game. The period finished with Hamilton on the power-play for 1:50 but again couldn’t find a way through Robertson to knot the game again.
The final frame kicked off and the troops killed off the remaining 10-seconds of their penalty, but then quickly went back to the box for a tripping call. 20 seconds after Hamilton’s third powerplay started, Jorian Donovan earned a tripping call of his own and it became 4-on-4 with neither team hitting the scoreboard on the abbreviated man advantages. After Ty Nelson received his second minor penalty of the night due to an after-whistle scrum, the Bulldogs had quite a few chances including Ryan Humphrey getting an in tight opportunity to which Charlie Robertson made a contender for save of the year, diving across his crease and capturing the puck to deny the Bulldogs what appeared a certain tying goal. With the Battalion power-play their high-octane offense made no mistake as Liam Arnsby cleaned up a rebound for his third of the season, and second point of the evening giving the Troops a 3-1 lead. Matvey Petrov and Dalyn Wakely added two empty net goals for the visitors and the game ended by a score of 5-1 for North Bay with Robertson making 35 saves on 36 Bulldogs shots earning the win.
The Bulldogs are back in action this Tuesday travelling to Peterborough for a 7:05 matchup against the Petes and Thursday in Barrie for a 7:30 matchup against the Colts.
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