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OHL Brantford Bulldogs

Bulldogs Capture 3rd Point of Weekend in 6-5 OT Loss

December 8, 2023 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Brantford Bulldogs News Release


KITCHENER, ONTARIO. Following a victory over the Peterborough Petes on Thursday night, the Brantford Bulldogs continued their 3-in-3 weekend on Friday night making their only trip of the 2023-24 season to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium to challenge the OHL leading Rangers.

The Rangers, who lead the OHL in goals scored coming into the night, showed their offensive prowess early in the game as cycle deep in the Brantford zone paid dividends. Lucas Ellinas with a spinning pass to the slot located defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz crashing down from the blueline to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 6:31. The Bulldogs countered at 11:32, with Marek Vanacker bulleting a pass through neutral ice that connected with Jake O'Brien tip-toeing the blueline. O'Brien working from right to left along the line, fed the puck to a streaking Ben Bujold through the left circle. Bujold drove to the front of the Rangers goal and lifted the puck over the glove hand of Jackson Parsons for his 7th of the season tying the game 1-1. Immediately after the goal, the Rangers created a 2-on-1 with Filip Mesar alone infront of the net where he was robbed by Bulldogs starter David Egorov who made a spectacular split stop. The Bulldogs fed off their goaltender bringing continuing the momentum with the top line back on the ice at 16:39. Patrick Thomas fired a pass from the right wing boards just outside the Bulldogs blueline through the middle of the ice for Florian Xhekaj. With just a quick touch, Xhekaj popped the puck slightly to his left into the Rangers zone where Nick Lardis skated into a breakaway. In a near mirror image of the Bujold goal, Lardis worked from the left to the front of the net, again lifting the puck over Parsons' glove for his 20th of the season, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead they held to the intermission.

The second period was all Bulldogs, beginning at 10:21 when Nick Lardis & Patrick Thomas working the puck to Jorian Donovan coming out of the Brantford zone. Working the left side, Donovan slid through a Rangers defender with a brilliant move and walked down through the left circle, rifling a shot past Parsons for his 7th of the year giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead. At 14:45, Ben Bujold played the puck to the Brantford blueline where Jake O'Brien had a quick handle and put a perfect pass forward to Marek Vanacker on the breakaway. Vanacker, raced down the slot pulling the puck back off his hip and whipped his shot under the glove of Parsons for his 10th of the year to give the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead. The offensive push wasn't done yet, at 15:42, Ben Bujold cleared the puck ahead with the puck dying out at the bottom of the left circle. Calvin Crombie raced onto the puck putting his stick between his legs and roofing his shot over Parsons for his 5th of the year on a potential goal of the year to give the Bulldogs a 5-1 lead. The Crombie goal spelled the end of the night for Parsons with former Bulldogs netminder Tristan Malboeuf replacing his battery mate and the Bulldogs carried the 4-goal lead to the 2nd intermission.

The Rangers turned the game on its head in the 3rd period, after Noah Roberts was called for an extremely questionable slash, the Bulldogs killed off the penalty but in the seconds following Filip Mesar banked a shot off Lucas Moore's skate to pull the Rangers within 3 at 4:38. With the Rangers on the power-play again at 8:21, a Mesar shot banked off Trent Swick's skate for his 12th of the season pulling the Rangers to within two. The bounces continued for the Rangers at 15:29 as Antonio Pugliese wrap-around deflected off Noah Van Vliet to make it a 5-3 game. On the power-play at 15:55, the Rangers tied the game with Carson Rehkopf's shot coming off Trent Swick's skate again to make it 5-5. The game went to overtime, with Nick Lardis being called 41-seconds in for a boarding penalty, Carson Rehkopf rifled a shot through a screen and gave the Rangers the 6-5 comeback victory.

The Brantford Bulldogs end their 3-in-3 weekend with the rematch against the Kitchener Rangers on Saturday, December 9th at the Brantford Civic Centre, with a 7:00pm start time.

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