For the middle stretch of the team’s weekend 3-in-3, the Brantford Bulldogs returned to TD Civic Centre to host the long-time rival Oshawa Generals on Saturday evening in the first of six meetings between the clubs on the season.
The Generals got out of the blocks quickly, showing lively legs and tremendous compete early on. Harrison Franssen laid the puck forward on the left-wing side for Luke Posthumus on a zone exit where the OA forward delivered to his right for Owen Griffin across the Bulldogs line. Griffin lasered a shot past David Egorov to give the Generals a 1-0 lead on his 9th of the season at 3:58, putting the hosts on the back foot. Oshawa played a very strong road frame, holding the Bulldogs to just six shots and forcing David Egorov into 11 saves in the frame to hold the hosts within a goal through 20-minutes.
David Egorov punctuated his performance in the middle frame, with Owen Griffin rolling a puck through a crowd to Brooks Rogowski at the side of an open net, Egorov reached out with the paddle of his stick as he fell backwards to the goal line to keep the puck from crossing in a spectacular stop. The Bulldogs fed off their netminder’s moment of brilliance and began to turn the game into their favour. Off a forced turnover in the offensive zone at Sam McCue collected the puck, strode into the bottom of the right circle and tucked a shot 5-hole for his 8th of the season and 7th in his 5-game goal scoring streak to knot the game 1-1 at 5:21. At 12:47 Edison Engle launched Cooper Dennis forward up the right-wing side with the Bulldogs rookie flashing a pass across the face of goal to a crashing Aiden O’Donnell who knocked the puck past a sprawling Jaden Cholette to give the Bulldogs a 2- 1 lead on his 4th of the season. Cholette wouldn’t let Egorov steal all the headlines for spectacular stops however, as the Bulldogs put siege to the Oshawa goal on the man advantage with Jake O’Brien feeding from the left circle to the bottom of the right for Adam Benak who sent the puck back across the front of the net to Marek Vanacker who appeared to have a wide-open side of the goal. Jaden Cholette, somehow, managed to get his body across to make a brilliant stop, grasping the puck against his body and keeping the Generals within striking distance as part of his 12 saves in the middle frame.
The Bulldogs played an excellent frame with the lead over the final 20-minutes. Outshooting Oshawa 17-4 over the third period and controlling the pace of play. With Cholette pulled to the Oshawa bench for a 6th attached, Adam Benak was able to pick off a Ben Danford pass intended for Owen Griffin and turn the play forward to Jake O’Brien. Through the center circle, the captain laid it on to Marek Vanacker to deposit into the empty net for his 11th of the season, securing the Bulldogs second straight 3-1 victory and continuing the franchise’s best ever start in moving to a 10-0-1-1 mark over the team’s first 12 games.
Story by Reed Duthie
