67’s leave a dent in Hamilton’s hopes
PLAYOFF HOPES TAKE A HIT
They’re down, but not out. Despite dropping a 4-1 decision to the visiting Ottawa 67’s Sunday, the Hamilton Bulldogs remain in the playoff mix — two points shy of the eighth-place Oshawa Generals — and confident they can close the gap.
“When we’re on our game, it fun to play and it’s fun to watch,” said forward Adam Laishram. “So if we can sort it out in the end stretch here, I think we definitely have a chance to overcome Oshawa to take that last spot.”
Here’s the reality, though.
With four games left to play, the odds of the club making the playoffs in its inaugural season in Hamilton are becoming increasingly slim.
They gained a bit of ground on Oshawa with a 5-3 win over Guelph Saturday, but the Generals also have two games in hand.
“It’s tough that we’ve put ourselves in this situation,” added Laishram, 18. “But I think we’ve just got to focus on ourselves and take care of our part and see how the numbers play out.”
It starts with improving the effort level — something sorely lacking Sunday. Aside from a short offensive spurt late in the second pe- riod, the Bulldogs were flat throughout the game and struggled to win and move the puck.
“When it’s a 3-1 hockey game, you’d think there would be a little more of a push,” said head coach George Burnett. “We didn’t get it.” It took little time for Ottawa to open the scoring, with Nathan Todd beating goalie Kaden Fulcher less than six minutes in. Artur Tyanulin and Travis Barron extended the lead by midgame, before Niki Petti bit back for the Bull- See Teri Pecoskie’s End to End blog at e2e.thespec.com dogs — the closest they’d come to mounting a comeback. An empty netter by Dante Salituro sealed the 67’s win.
A day earlier, Matthew Strome had a pair of goals as Hamilton topped Guelph — the team’s first win in four games.
Laishram, Mackenzie Entwistle and Matt Luff also tallied for the Bulldogs, and Guelph’s Nick Deacin-Poot, Garrett McFadden and James McEwan replied.
With Hamilton off until Saturday, when Sudbury comes to town, Burnett said the focus is simply on being ready to play.
“Two wins next weekend is absolutely imperative,” he added, and it won’t be smooth sailing.
“You can look at the standings and expect an easy time of it,” he said of the Wolves — the lone team trailing the Bulldogs in the conference.
“But we didn’t have an easy time of it last night against Guelph, and I would expect a similar situation.”
In addition to Sudbury, the Bulldogs host the Niagara IceDogs Sunday in their last regular season home game. Oshawa, meanwhile, takes on Kingston on Wednesday night.