Lavoie Winner Stops Streaking Generals in Brantford
January 18, 2024 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Brantford Bulldogs News Release
BRANTFORD, ONTARIO - The Brantford Bulldogs opened a mini two-game homestand on Wednesday night, hosting a battle of the top two teams in the OHL's East Division, with the 6th meeting of the season against the Oshawa Generals. The Bulldogs entered the night sitting two points clear of the Generals for the division lead.
Despite missing the trio of Patrick Thomas, Nick Lardis & Cole Brown, the Bulldogs came out of the gates with jump in the opening frame carrying the play and besieging the goal of Jacob Oster. The early pressure paid off at 3:34, on the power-play. Florian Xhekaj swung the puck up the right wing boards to Zakary Lavoie at the right point who fired a shot to the front of the net that was deflected by Marek Vanacker. Jacob Oster made the stop on the tip but the rebound kicked over to Jake O'Brien who fired the puck into the back of the net for his 6th of the season to give the Bulldogs the 1-0 lead. The pressure continued on the Generals zone in waves with the Bulldogs creating off the cycle which led to the second goal of the game. Lawson Sherk carried the puck out of left corner, skating through the top of the circle and hitting the breaks at the top of the slot. Sherk's shot came off a block infront of Oster's net back into the left circle where Dylan Tsherna found it and threw a shot back into the pile, taking just a slight deflection off Noah Nelson's skate and sliding to the back of the net for Nelson's 3rd of the season at 9:18 to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. Before the period was over, the Bulldogs nearly extended the lead to 3-0 on a Marek Vanacker breakaway, beating Jacob Oster off the left circle but just couldn't get the backhand inside the post. With 20 minutes having been played the Bulldogs led on the shot clock by a 14-4 margin and 2-0 scoreline.
The Generals bounced back in the middle frame, with a delayed penalty on the way, Zachary Sandhu launched a shot from the right point to the front of the net where Rasmus Kumpulainen tipped it down and past Matteo Drobac for hisn 16th of the season at 0:29 to cut the Bulldogs lead to 2-1. In the latter part of the frame, the Generals knotted the game up. At 16:36 with the Generals on the power-play, Stuart Rolofs and Connor Punnett played catch from the top of the circle to the middle of the blueline. With Dylan Roobroeck screening Matteo Drobac, Punnett fired from the middle of the line sneaking it past the Bulldogs netminder for his 6th of the season tying the game 2-2. With the frame coming to a close, the Bulldogs were forced into a full two-minutes of 5-on-3 penalty killing time. Daniil Sobolev stepped up for his teammates, blocking a shot from the top of the formation, Sobolev was in extreme pain but gutted out the shift. Unable to skate to make the long change until there were just moments left in the period, Sobolev gave a charge to his teammates with his effort, killing all but 7-seconds that crossed into the 3rd period, giving the Bulldogs an emotional lift heading to it.
After killing the remaining seconds to open the final frame, the period turned a slight bit tentative with Drobac & Oster essentially turning the contest into a next goal wins scenario. The next goal came at 6:00, with Marek Vanacker stealing the puck on the end boards and dealing it into the right circle for Jake O'Brien. The outstanding rookie collected the puck sliding away from the net and drawing a Generals defender to him. Sliding the puck tight in his stride, O'Brien eluded three Generals with the pass leading Zakary Lavoie to open space just above the bottom of the left circle where the right handed shot hammered the puck past a diving Oster for his 16th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. That was all the offense Matteo Drobac needed, stopping 18 of the 20 shots he faced on the evening to give the Bulldogs their 20th victory of the season and extend their lead atop the East Division to four points in a 3-2 victory
The Bulldogs finish the mini homestand on Saturday afternoon, January 20th, hosting Retro Night presented by Renway Energy at the Brantford Civic Centre with a 4:00pm start time against the visiting Windsor Spitfires.
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