'Dogs Shutout First-Place Amerks

Published on November 25, 2006 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Hamilton Bulldogs News Release


HAMILTON, ON - Jaroslav Halak turned aside all of the 28 shots he faced, leading the Hamilton Bulldogs to a 6-0 shutout victory over the AHL's first-place team, the Rochester Americans, on Saturday night at Copps Coliseum. With the win, Hamilton's record improves to 9-8-0-1 on the season.

The Bulldogs opened the scoring at 6:17 of the first period when rookie Matt D'Agostini scored on the power play. D'Agostini received a Corey Locke pass from the corner and deposited it into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season. The goal would stand as the game-winner but was the beginning of a long night for the Americans.

Hamilton increased its lead to 2-0 with another power-play goal at 12:57 of the first frame. Eric Manlow drew his second assist of the game when he dropped a pass to Locke who beat Rochester goaltender Adam Dennis with a high slap shot to the glove side.

Mikhail Grabovski single-handedly made the score 3-0 for the Bulldogs at the 15:15 mark of the opening period. Grabovski stole the puck from a Rochester defender, went in alone on Dennis and forced him to commit before pulling the puck to his forehand and burying a shot in the top of the net.

Jonathan Ferland took a perfect pass in the slot from Corey Locke to pad the Bulldogs' lead to 4-0 at 6:41 of the middle stanza. Manlow also added an assist, his third helper of the game, on Ferland's fifth goal of the season.

Hamilton took a 5-0 lead in the third period when Andrei Kostitsyn tallied his second goal of the season. Kostitsyn gathered a rebound off of defenceman Ryan O'Byrne's shot and snapped the puck into an empty net.

Zack Stortini rounded out the scoring with just 6:28 left in regulation play, extending Hamilton's lead to 6-0. Dan Jancevski and Mathieu Roy became the 11th and 12th Bulldogs to register points on the night with assists on Stortini's seventh goal of the season.

Halak registered his league-leading third shutout of the season and improved his record to 5-3-0 in eight games. The shutout gave him six in his AHL career and tied him with teammate Yann Danis for second all-time despite playing in only 21 career games. Both netminders need only one more shutout to tie former-‘Dog Steve Passmore's record of seven career shutouts. Halak also leads the AHL with a 1.50 goals-against average and a 0.949 save percentage.

Hamilton became only the third team this season to defeat Rochester and only the second to do so in regulation play.

The Bulldogs next game is tomorrow afternoon, Sunday November 26th at 4:00 p.m. against the Milwaukee Admirals at Copps Coliseum. Tickets for all ‘Dogs home games (except home game #32) are available at the Copps Coliseum Box Office, any Ticketmaster outlet, online at www.ticketmaster.ca, or through charge-by-phone at 905-527-7666.

Fans can listen to every ‘Dogs game this season on the flagship station of the Hamilton Bulldogs Hockey Network, 820 CHAM "The Legend," beginning with the Park's Furniture Pre-Game Show 20 minutes prior to each scheduled game time. Fans can also listen or watch at www.hamiltonbulldogs.com by clicking on the ‘B2 Networks' or ‘820 CHAM' icon on the ‘Dogs website.

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American Hockey League Stories from November 25, 2006


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