O'Brien Leads Dogs to East Division Title & Conference Clinch
OHL Brantford Bulldogs

O'Brien Leads Dogs to East Division Title & Conference Clinch

Published on March 19, 2026 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Brantford Bulldogs News Release


BRANTFORD, ON. Entering the final week of the Ontario Hockey League season, the Brantford Bulldogs returned to TD Civic Centre ice on Wednesday night with the opportunity to clinch both the East Division title and top seed in the Eastern Conference as they played host to the Niagara IceDogs.

Looking to spoil the opportunity, the Niagara IceDogs opened the scoring 2:23 into the first period with Ivan Galiyanov laying the puck to the front of the Brantford goal where Alexander Hage took a massive hit from Caleb Malhotra and knock the put into the Bulldogs goal for his 4th of the season to give the visitors the 1-0, mirroring the last meeting between the teams ten days earlier.

The Bulldogs built momentum through the opening frame with Charlie Robertson playing a starring role, including an early 2-on-1 stop on a give and go from Caleb Malhotra & Cooper Dennis, keeping the IceDogs in the advantage until 17:56. Jake O'Brien forced a turnover on the end boards where Marek Vanacker followed to free up the puck and feed along to Adam Benak flashing around back of the goal and carrying into the left circle where he fed the middle of the line to Adam Jiricek who hammerd a one-timer to the net front where Marek Vanacker stationed up in front of Charlie Robertson tipping the puck for his 45th goal of the season knotting the game 1-1 into the intermission.

The middle frame remained knotted through the majority of the fame with Robertson again standing up for the IceDogs denying 16 Bulldogs shots in the period including a pair of point-blank opportunities from Zach Sandhu. After Ben Reisnecker was called for roughing on Luca Testa & Ivan Galiyanov was quickly whistled thereafter for slashing Adam Benak, the Bulldogs went to work in a 5-on-3 power- play. With the league's top power -play in motion, Adam Benak caught the puck in the right circle and sent it back t o the top of the formation to Jake O'Brien who carried into the top of the left circle baiting an IceDogs defender to drop before flashing a pass to the backdoor for Marek Vanacker who tapped in his 2nd of the game and league leading 46th of the season to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead at 17:39. Moments after the power-play ended, Luca Testa intercepted a pass in the IceDogs slot, turning and ringing a shot off the crossbar before Jake O'Brien nearly extended the lead with just seconds left in the middle fram e out of the left circle firing a shot that rang off the far post, keeping the lead at 2-1 through 40-minutes.

In the final frame the Bulldogs continued the offensive pressure and extended the lead at 6:06.

Adam Jiricek batted down an IceDogs clearing attempt at the middle of the Niagara line flying into the slot, dropping the puck to Jake O'Brien before the captai n returned it to Jiricek at the side of the Niagara goal where the defenseman recorded his 18th of the season giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 advantage. Not giving up on the night, the IceDogs battled back under two-minutes later as Ryerson Leenders left the puck behind the goal for Vladimir Dravecky to re-set the power-play only to have the puck bounce over the defenseman's stick and right onto Hayden Reid hitting a wrap-around for 18th of the season to cut the lead to 3-2 at 8:01. The Bulldogs top offensive line pulled the goal right back at 10:23 with Jake O'Brien stealing a puck on the left half boards in the Niagara zone, quickly feeding into the left circle for Marek Vanacker who carried to the side of the crease before turning the puck to Adam Benak off the right post to record his 27th of the season making it a 4- 2 game. With his assist on the Benak goal, Jake O'Brien recorded his 250th point of his career, becoming the 2nd Bulldog to ever cross that number, joining Patrick Thomas. As time wound down in the final frame, the IceDogs pulled Charlie Robertson to the bench to skate 6-on-4 and then 6-on-5 when, at 17:24, Owen Protz sent the puck around back of the goal to Adam Jiricek who rolled it through neutral ice and into the Niagara zone where Jake O'Brien galloped to the puck, held off Haoxi Wang, wrapped around behind the Niagara goal and hit the empty net for his 26 of the season finishing off a 5-2 lead that gave the Bulldogs their first back-to-back East Division Championship in franchise history and secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference and home ice through at least the first three rounds of the playoffs.

The Brantford Bulldogs will return to action for their final home game of the regular season on Friday night, March 20th hosting the North Bay Battalion at 7:00pm.

Check out the Brantford Bulldogs Statistics

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from March 19, 2026


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