Lemcke returns and Luff shines
It’s tough to overshadow your captain’s long-awaited return, but Matt Luff found a way.
The Oakville native notched his first Ontario Hockey League hat trick as the Hamilton Bulldogs downed the visiting Kitchener Rangers, 5-4, on Family Day. He has 10 goals and five assists in the past six games.
“It’s pretty insane,” said the 18year-old forward. “It feels good to get it done, though.”
Luff had luck on his side on his first goal, a pass which went off a skate and behind goalie Dawson Carty, and his second, which Carty bumbled at the side of the net. His third, however, was pure skill.
Jack Hidi started the play, chipping the puck off the glass to send Luff streaking into the Kitchener zone. He went forehand and then backhand before roofing it over Carty’s replacement, Luke Opilka, for his 20th goal of the season — the game winner.
“On the breakaway, I just thought about the move and I saw it go in,” he said. “It was kind of a relief.”
Trent Fox and Niki Petti also scored in the win — Hamilton’s first in five games. Darby Llewellyn had two for Kitchener while Adam Mascherin and Ryan MacInnis had one each.
Monday’s game was the second of the weekend for defenceman Justin Lemcke, the Bulldogs captain who fractured his fibula in October. He missed 49 games before staging his comeback Saturday in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Peterborough Petes.
“It was probably the most nervous I’d been since my first OHL game, nervous about how my body was going to feel,” he said. And the verdict. So far, so good. Lemcke said he had no pain in his leg after either match, although he did feel — and look — uncharacteristically slow.
Lemcke’s fists, however, were working just fine. On Monday, the 19-year-old brought the crowd at FirstOntario Centre to its feet when he pounded Rangers’ forward Jake Henderson in a second period brawl.
“That’s pretty standard,” he said. “I don’t say ‘no’ enough.”
Bulldogs’ head coach George Burnett, who described the Whitby native as “fearless,” didn’t disagree.
“I’ll probably have to tell him not to somewhere down the line, but that’s the way he is,” he said. “If the team needs a lift, he’s going to be there for his teammates. That’s a tremendous quality that not everybody has, but we also don’t want him messing up a knuckle in a fight and spending more time out of the lineup.”
Lemcke, who returned a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated, played around 14 minutes per game on the weekend — slightly longer than the 10or-so Burnett intended — and finished with a minus-3 rating. Still, “he handled himself well,” Burnett said.
“We just have to be careful we’re not putting him back at the heap expecting that of him too quickly.”
Lemcke was on the ice for two of the three Rangers goals in the final period Monday — a stretch in which Hamilton allowed a four-goal advantage to evaporate to one.
Had Kitchener managed to finish the comeback, it would have been the fourth time in five games the Bulldogs had been leading after 40 minutes and lost, either in regulation or in overtime.
“It’s nice to finish on top tonight,” said Burnett.
“They’re a really good team. But it’s not acceptable to play that way and we’ve got to get everyone understanding and committed to doing a better job.”
With the win, the Bulldogs even their season series with Kitchener at a game apiece. They also keep pace with Oshawa, who they’re battling for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 13 games to go. NOTES: Lemcke wasn’t the only blueliner to return to the Bulldogs lineup on the weekend. Jesse Saban was also back Saturday after missing the three previous games with a shoulder injury. … Evan Krassey scored his first Ontario Hockey League goal against Peterborough. The 17-year-old from Atikokan came to Hamilton from Niagara in a trade for Stephen Harper last month. … Kaden Fulcher stopped 32 shots against Kitchener, while Carty and Olpika turned aside just 13 collectively. … Bulldogs’ Connor Hicks had 42 saves in Saturday’s loss to the Petes.