Great hockey in front of a great crowd
Since the Belleville Bulls moved west to become the Hamilton Bulldogs three years ago, the dream for many has been that one day this city would recapture the junior hockey magic that once existed with the Red Wings and the Fincups. Big crowds in team colours generating huge buzz throughout the city and around the rink.
Basically, exactly what happened Wednesday night.
The sea of yellow — all the people in the building got retina-burning T-shirts — looked predictably cool. The biggest crowd of the playoffs anywhere in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs that filled the lower bowl and spilled into the upper deck (8,603 in total) was loud and engaged. The 50-50 draw was huge. Over $17,000. In front of a national TV audience, the city looked great. And the game?
The ending wasn’t what the fans wanted. Dropping a 3-2 decision put a slight damper on things. But if you like nail-biting action with plenty of chances and loads of emotional swings, you would’ve loved this one. Throwing in a gut-churning overtime filled with goalposts and breakaways and miraculous saves just gave everyone a little more bang for their buck.
Unlike Monday’s wide-open scorefest, this one was mostly a tight-checking chess match with both teams doing a good job using their sticks to break up passes and absorbing punishment to block shots and hit. Goals were hard to come by this time. Which just showed how evenly matched these two sides are. Want to play fire-wagon hockey? No problem, let’s go. Want to play a grind-it-out game? Here we go. Either way, it’s as even as can be.
All four games have been decided by a goal — in Game 2, the Greyhounds got an empty netter to make it a two-goal spread — which is fully reflective of the matchup. A break here or a break there and this series could already be over. Either team could’ve swept. Either could’ve been swept. Quite simply, it’s a joy to watch.
As entertaining as this evening was, thanks in large measure to the response of the locals, the real hometown flavour in these playoffs is on the ice. These Hamilton Bulldogs truly are the Hamilton Bulldogs. Three of the most-impactful guys in black and yellow through the playoffs are products of this city’s minor hockey system.
Brandon Saigeon comes from down the road in Grimsby but he played his minor hockey with the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs. He’s been a menace in this post-season with 16 goals already, including three game winners.
Nicholas Caamano is from Ancaster and actually played on
that same Jr. Bulldogs’ team with Saigeon. He’s been consistently terrific, at one point riding a 12-game point streak. He scored his eighth goal of the post-season on Wednesday.
And Isaac Nurse has been the team’s secret sauce all year. A late-round draft pick who was never supposed to make this team, he’s become essential to the Bulldogs’ success almost through hard work alone. If anyone reflects the ethos of this city, it’s him.
A fourth, Owen Burnell, rounds out this group. He hasn’t had much ice time but as The Spec’s Teri Pecoskie wrote on Wednesday, he has a wonderful story of persistence just to get here.
This infusion of home cooking doesn’t happen everywhere. It certainly doesn’t happen often. With players drafted from all over the place and teams built with no geographic restrictions or protections, some teams might have one homegrown player in the lineup, maybe two. Four? Not likely. Having them on board is a nice touch. Not just for the club. For the young men, too. Being in position to contend for a championship is a big deal for any player. Being able to have a real shot at it in your hometown is something truly special. Win a title and you become a part of your city’s lore.
They can still do that, they just have to go the more-difficult route now. With the win, the Soo reclaims home-ice advantage which is enormous for a team that’s lost just five times at home through the regular season and playoffs. The Bulldogs now have to steal a second game there. They’ve done it once already so they can do it again. It’s just really, really hard. The silver lining in the loss? We’re now guaranteed a Game 6 at FirstOntario Centre on Sunday afternoon. Meaning Hamilton gets to do this all over again.