Finishing their weekend road-trip through Michigan on Sunday evening, the Brantford Bulldogs arrived at the Dow Event Centre for their only visit of the season, taking on the Saginaw Spirit, coming off a 7-0 victory a night ago in Flint.
The Bulldogs picked up right where they left off on Saturday, striking just 1:40 into the game. Layne Gallacher collected the puck in the right circle, turning it back to the right point for Ben Danford who returned it to the Bulldogs center in space. Gallacher found Zack Sandhu crashing in off the left point and his initial shot was stopped but Gallacher followed up knocking the rebound past Stepan Shurygin to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 on his 4th of the season, with Zack Sandhu earning his first point as a Bulldog in the process. At 7:39, on the power-play the Bulldogs extended their lead. After a right-wing zone entry, Adam Jiricek held the puck at the middle of the blueline, dropping it along the line for Jake O’Brien, Jiricek crossed with Adam Benak who came out to the top of the formation and took the pass from the captain. From the middle of the blueline, Benak launched a shot through Shurygin for his 8th of the season and a 2-0 Bulldogs lead. Ryerson Leenders, following up on his Saturday shutout, denied all 7 shots he faced in the opening frame from the high-flying Spirit offense.
Saginaw did manage to crack through at 4:42 of the middle frame with Graydon Jones & Egor Barabanov combining to find Nikita Klepov to collect his 13th of the season cutting the Bulldogs lead in half. The Bulldogs regained the two-goal advantage on the power-play at 6:00. Jake O’Brien from the bottom of the left circle sent a seam pass to Adam Benak at the top of the right circle. Benak quickly twisted the puck to the bottom of the right circle for Caleb Malhotra with the Bulldogs leading rookie firing the puck goalmouth intended for Marek Vanacker but deflecting off a Saginaw defender and into the net for Malhotra’s 7th of the season and a 3-1 lead. After Dimian Zhilkin was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for a head check the Bulldogs added to the lead with the man-advantage. First, at 12:25, Jake O’Brien doubled back in the left-circle feeding the puck to Adam Jiricek in the middle of the blueline. Jiricek strode down to the high slot, faking a shot on goal and delivering a pass to the post that Caleb Malhotra tipped into the open side for his 2nd of the game and 8th of the season making it a 4-1 lead. Continuing on the major power-play at 13:20, Adam Benak collected the puck on the end boards and darted a pass to the high slot for Jake O’Brien. The captain faked a shot as he moved laterally towards the left-circle and sent a pass to the top of the right-circle for Marek Vanacker who launched a one-timer past Shurygin for his 15th of the season and a 5-1 Bulldogs lead. Before the middle frame was out, Ben Danford sent Parker Holmes ahead on the left-wing at the Saginaw blueline with the towering winger locating Layne Gallacher breaking through the middle of the ice with speed through the Saginaw defense. Striding in on goal, Gallacher’s toe drag opened Shurygin up and tucked it through him for his 2nd of the game and 5th of the season at 16:01 giving the Bulldogs a 6-1 lead through 40 minutes of play.
The final frame was a quiet one, after 6 goals in the opening 40 minutes, Stepan Shurygin was chased in favour of Kaleb Papineau for the final 20 minutes. Ryerson Leenders was only cracked once in the final frame with Levi Harper collecting his 6th of the season from Klepov & Barabanov at 10:28 but with Leenders making 27 total saves that was as close as the Spirit would get with the Bulldogs finishing off a 6-1 win and a Michigan sweep.
Story by Reed Duthie
