Hamilton Bulldogs gain 2-1 edge in best-of-seven league final with a hard-fought 6-5 win over the Soo Greyhounds
They did the one thing they really didn’t want to do — end up short-handed against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
But, for once, it didn’t cost them.
Despite giving up three powerplay goals, the Hamilton Bulldogs came out on top of the Hounds to take a 2-1 lead in the OHL final at First Ontario Centre on Monday.
There were 7,349 fans on hand for the 6-5 win — which, outside of school day games, was the club’s largest-ever draw.
“Five-on-five, we are a really good team, but we got into some penalty trouble later on to make it quite interesting,” head coach John Gruden said in the aftermath. “And we found a way, so that’s the good news.”
For the Bulldogs, the game was an anomaly. Because, for much of the playoffs, their fate has been intimately tied to their penalty kill.
Going into the game, they had a 13-4 record in the post-season. In those 13 wins combined, they allowed eight power-play goals on 47 opportunities, which means their PK was operating at close to 83 per cent.
In their four losses, meanwhile, they were short-handed 19 times and gave up seven goals for a kill rate slightly over 63 per cent.
Even early in this series, it has been a factor. In Game 1, the Bulldogs stayed out of penalty trouble and went on to win in overtime. In Game 2, though, they got sloppy and allowed the Greyhounds to score twice on the power play — the same number of goals they ultimately lost by.
In the wake of that 4-2 loss, Gruden said the undisciplined penalties seem to be the ones that come back to get you. He also said his guys “know” and their discipline has been “really good in the playoffs.”
While those things are both open to debate, what is clear is you can’t take penalties at this time of the year unless it is absolutely necessary — especially against the Soo, which has been scoring at more than a goal-pergame clip with the extra man.
Monday’s game — in which the Greyhounds notched three of their five goals on the power play — was the proof.
The hosts fell behind early when Kaden Fulcher allowed a should-have-been harmless shot from the goal line squeak through him before the twominute mark, but fought back with three quick tallies — Nick Caamano, Arthur Kaliyev and Will Bitten were the scorers — to end up with a 3-2 lead at the end of the first.
In the second, Brandon Saigeon scored 18 seconds in and again with under five minutes to go, boosting the lead to two by intermission. Then, in the third, Marian Studenic and Mackenzie Entwistle took back-to-back minors. Jack Kopacka scored with four seconds to go on the latter advantage to bring the Greyhounds to within one.
Were it not for Studenic bouncing back and scoring perhaps the biggest goal of his career to put the Bulldogs ahead by a pair late in the third, this one probably would have gone to overtime. Because the Greyhounds tallied again in the dying seconds of the game with Justin Lemcke in the box.
Tim Gettinger scored twice and Joe Carroll and Morgan Frost notched singles to round out the scoring for the Soo.