Suiting up for Military Appreciation in Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders inspired jerseys on Sunday afternoon, the Brantford Bulldogs stood at the precipice of history for their Head Coach. Entering the game on 299 career wins, Jay McKee had the opportunity to match Brian Kilrea in accomplishing 300 wins in his 9th season as on OHL bench boss and poetically so, against the Ottawa 67’s.
Only one change in the lineup for the Bulldogs following their Friday night victory over the Oshawa Generals as Simcoe product Camron Hankai returned to the lineup in place of Edison Engle. The Bulldogs got the first period they were looking for, outshooting Ottawa by a 12-5 margin, while earning a pair of trips to the power-play. It was on the latter of the trips that the Bulldogs opened the scoring. Adam Jiricek, from the middle of the blueline, placed a perfect slap-pass on the stick of Caleb Malhotra at the right side of the goal. Eluding a defender below the goal line, Malhotra saucered a backhand pass to the front of Jaden Nelson’s goal to OHL leading goal scorer Marek Vanacker to continue his tremendous start to the season hammering home his 17th of the season at 12:33 to stake the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead.
The middle frame was rather tame, though expected between two of the premier defensive teams in the Ontario Hockey League. Ryerson Leenders was sharp in turning aside 9 Ottawa attempts over the frame, Jaden Nelson did his part at the other end, keeping the 67’s firmly in the game, making 8 stops in the second period and 19 through 40 minutes giving his team a chance into the third period.
The third frame saw a dramatic twist that brought the Brantford crowd from their feet to the edge of their seat. Just 51-seconds into the period, Adam Benak stole the puck in neutral ice, just above the Ottawa blueline and raced in 2-on-1 with Cooper Dennis. Benak place a perfect pass for Dennis to catch and quickly release a shot that he squeezed through the five-hole of Jaden Nelson for his fourth of the weekend and 10th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. At 6:18 the Bulldogs looked to put the game firmly into their control. Layne Gallacher, from the right corner set the puck into the circle for Luca Testa who quickly sent a pass back door to Sam McCue where the veteran goal scorer knocked in his 10th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. The pesky 67’s showed no quit and just 17-seconds later mounted a response. Shaan Kingwell tossed the puck forward on the right-wing side to be carried along by Cooper Foster. Driving the Bulldogs defense back, Foster dropped the puck for Nic Whitehead who whipped a shot through a screen to make it 3-1. The visitors followed up at 8:18 after an unfortunate bounce in the Bulldogs zone landed the puck for Spencer Bowes whose initial shot was denied by Ryerson Leenders before gathering his own rebound and banking in his 3rd of the season to pull the 67’s to within a goal. Ottawa managed to knot the game 3-3 on the power-play at 14:00 with Kohyn Eshkawkogan delivering a pass to Jasper Kuhta that the Finnish import hammered past Ryerson Leenders for his 12th of the season and ended up forcing overtime.
In the 3-on-3 both teams had their opportunities with Marek Vanacker & Vladimir Dravecky each coming within inches of collecting a game-winning goal, while Ryerson Leenders denied Kohyn Eshkawkogan at the other end with a nifty glove stop, sending the game to a shootout. After Nic Whitehead and Cooper Dennis exchanged goals in the first round, Ryerson Leenders denied Cooper Foster, while Jake O’Brien, with a brilliant move at the net front, beat Jaden Nelson to give the Bulldogs the advantage. Leenders then stopped Kuhta to earn the 4-3 shootout victory, earning head coach Jay McKee another piece of history with his 300th OHL win as a head coach.
Story by Reed Duthie
