The Brantford Bulldogs began their only trip of the season to Michigan on Saturday night meeting the Flint Firebirds at the Dort Financial Centre to open their two-game trip. After being acquired in a blockbuster trade on Thursday, both Ben Danford & Zack Sandhu made their Bulldogs on Saturday night.
The opening frame was exceeding quiet considering the Bulldogs entered the game as the OHL highest scoring team and the Flint Firebirds had recorded 16 goals over their three-game winning streak but it was largely so due to the handiwork of Ryerson Leenders and Mason Vaccari. Both netmiders stopped 11 in the frame with Ryerson Leenders coming up with a pair of early stops on Nathan Aspinall & Jimmy Lombardi while Vaccari turned aside Cooper Dennis and Marek Vanacker point blank to keep the game scoreless through 20-minutes.
The second period looked to be on the same track after Ryerson Leenders shut down Urban Podrekar, making a brilliant shoulder stop off the defenceman’s solo rush and Mason Vaccari at the other end stealing away a 2-on-1 from Jake O’Brien & Marek Vanacker, getting the webbing of his glove on the puck. The Bulldogs finally broke through at 16:08, with Caleb Malhotra on the right side dropping the puck onto a rushing Ben Danford who carried to the half boards toward the circle before firing a perfect pass cross-seam to Cooper Dennis for a one-timer past Vaccari for his 6th of the season and the first point for Ben Danford as a Bulldog. Just 1:45 later, Edison Engle shuttled the puck from the middle of the line to Vladimir Dravecky on the right side where the defenseman stepped down the wall, like Danford did to set the first goal, with Vanacker and Benak driving the net, Dravecky fired a pass through an open seam to Jake O’Brien in the left circle for the captain to hammer home for his 8th of the season and a 2- 0 lead through 40 minutes.
The Bulldogs continued the onslaught into the third period beginning just 1:05 in with Adam Jiricek collecting the puck in the center circle tossing the puck forward to Marek Vanacker cutting across the Flint blueline. Vanacker navigated into the right circle, using a head fake to lose a chasing defender before pulling up and rifling a shot off the back bar for his 13th of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. The lead was extended again just 59-seconds later when Luca Testa forced a puck out of the Bulldogs zone, beat a Flint defenseman to the puck, capturing it in the left circle before eluding a second defender and scoring on a net-drive chip shot for his 6th of the season and a 4-0 Bulldogs lead. Ryerson Leenders continued to stand tall in the third period, denying Xavier Tessier on a breakaway after the rookie found himself alone down the slot. The Bulldogs continued to build off their netminders efforts and added another first on the night. Adam Jiricek sent Parker Holmes up the right-wing side, with the towering winger laying a pass onto Jeremy Freeman who stepped into the slot and rifled a drive through Vaccari’s arm to record his 1st goal in the OHL at 3:31. With the Bulldogs on the power-play at 9:06, Ben Danford kept the puck inside the blueline against a pair of Firebirds penalty killers and fed the puck on to Sam McCue who pint-pointed a wrist shot from the slot for his 9th goal of the season and a 6-0 Bulldogs lead. The visitors added one more in strange fashion at 14:17 after Jake O’Brien played the puck around back of the Flint goal for Dylan Tsherna who sent the puck out front into a pileup where Marek Vanacker got a stick to the puck, launching it over Mason Vaccari’s head with the puck landing on his back and rolling into the net garnering Vanacker his 2nd of the night and 14th of the season to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead that they closed out with 30 saves from Ryerson Leenders for his 1st shutout of the season.
Story by Reed Duthie
