The Brantford scored five third period goals to defeat the Kingston Frontenacs 5-2 in Ontario Hockey League action on Sunday, November 26, 2023.
The opening frame was quiet goal wise with the hosts controlling the tempo, spending the majority of the period in the Kingston zone. Cole Brown earned the Bulldogs first scoring chance of the game, flying in on a breakaway after lifting the stick and picking the pocket of Quinton Burns only to have Mason Vaccari slam the door shut, one his 13 saves in the period.
The Frontenacs earned their best opportunity of the period past the half way mark with Paul Ludwinski taking a drop pass high on the right wing and breaking through the right circle but Matteo Drobac stood tall with a blocker save to keep the game scoreless. Late in the period, Vaccari made a save of the year candidate, with Daniel Chen’s right circle shot falling to Marek Vanacker at the side of the goal, the Bulldogs forward was looking into an open net. Just as Vanacker released, Vaccari dove clear across the goal reaching his glove just inches above the goal line to snag the puck and send the game to the intermission scoreless.
The second frame opened up with the Frontenacs on the rarely seen a 4-on-3 power-play. Jacob Battaglia had the best chance of the advantage with a tip right at the side of net. Drobac, with an explosive right to left move, closed off the angle and again kept the game at 0- 0. At 7:44 of the middle frame, the Frontenacs opened the scoring when Linus Hemström recording his ninth goal of the season as his left board shot tipped off of Matteo Drobac’s stick and over the arm of the Bulldogs netminder for a 1-0 Fronts lead.
Dylan Tsherna and Adam Cavallin, had a spirited tussle off a neutral zone draw with just under five minutes to play in the second, with both players receiving game misconducts on their fighting majors. Tsherna’s effort seemed to boost his teammates but the score remained 1-0 Kingston through 40 minutes despite large advantages for the Bulldogs in the faceoff circle and on the shot clock.
The final frame provced to be almost all Bulldogs. At 4:13, Tomas Hamara fed the puck forward for Ben Bujold who drove into the offensive zone and dropped it off for Patrick Thomas who fired a shot over the pad of Vaccari tying the game at 1-1. The momentum was quickly followed up at 6:20 as Callum Cheynowski handled the puck at the left point, dodging between a pair of Frontenacs and self-passing around a third, the Bulldogs defenseman fired the puck to an open Nick Lardis in the slot to record his 16th of the season giving Brantford the 2-1 lead. The Bulldogs continued the press and added to the lead just 40 seconds later. Noah Nelson & Lawson Sherk combined low on the right to get the puck back to the right point for Tomáš Hamara who went “Hamar Time” to score his firstt as a Bulldog to take a 3-1 lead.
Ben Bujold put in an incredible effort at both ends of the ice for the right to earn an empty net goal to take a 4-1 lead at 18:30 with Jorian Donovan and Marek Vanacker earning assists to seemingly ice the game. The Frontenacs however wouldn’t go quitely as Matthew Soto potted his tenth of the season with a drive to the front of the net, and giving the Frontenacs an opportunity down just a pair at 18:51. At 19:36, Bujold closed out the game scoring his second empty net goal of the afternoon, as the Bulldogs skated to the 5-2 victory.
The Bulldogs will now prepare for their next game when the Niagara IceDogs come to town on Wednesday, November 29, 2023.
