MAKING GAME 6 SPECIAL
With road win tonight, Bulldogs would have chance to win championship at home
As they head north to Ontario’s second most-important steel town for Game 5 of the Ontario Hockey League final, there’s no doubt the Hamilton Bulldogs will be lamenting the opportunity they let slip through their fingers.
Wednesday night’s contest was there for them. They could’ve had it. They probably should’ve had it. Only a miraculous save by Sault Ste. Marie’s goalie with 19 seconds left kept 8,603 fans from going home deliriously happy and the home side from putting a stranglehold on this series.
Alas, didn’t happen.
Instead of being up 3-1, they now face the daunting task of having to win another game in the Soo where the Greyhounds have dropped just five contests all season, regular and playoff. It’s hardly a worst-case scenario — not really close, actually — but it’s not ideal either. What could’ve mere been really difficult suddenly becomes really super-duper difficult to the exponent of four.
So how do they come home with a lead in the series and a chance to win the championship on FirstOntario Centre ice Sunday afternoon rather than in a position to be fighting for their playoff lives?
Let’s start with the blatantly obvious. It would be tremendously helpful if Hamilton could put an end to its self-harming habit of giving up a goal on the first shot of the game. Three times in a row it’s done that now. For reasons that require no explanation, that’s got to stop. Especially on the road where that would just energize a crowd that’ll be looking for reasons to get excited.
And while we’re on the topic of goals, not giving up any more easy ones would be a heck of an idea, too.
Bulldogs’ goalie Kaden Fulcher has generally been strong through the playoffs and has made some incredible saves in this series. But in both home games he surrendered stinkers from behind the goal-line. Against a team as good as the Greyhounds, you just can’t be handing out goals like they’re free samples at Costco. In a series decided by one-goal games, these miscues are incredibly costly.
Let’s assume those blips get resolved. What else?
While Hamilton’s sometimesgood-but-often-hideous penalty kill was better in Game 4 and didn’t give up a power-play goal,
taking penalties against the Soo is still a little like running a marathon with scorpions in your underwear.
They’ve already scored five times with the man advantage in this series. No team is going to avoid the box completely, but Hamilton can’t be spending much time there. Discipline is enormous.
Then there’s plain old wear and tear. The Greyhounds have played back-to-back, gruelling seven-game series. They’ve travelled over 8,000 kilometres in that time including a nearly 750-km bus ride home from Hamilton on Wednesday night. They’re young, healthy men but watching the last half of the third period and most of the overtime it looked like they were running on fumes. It all might finally be catching up with them a bit.
The Bulldogs travelled north for Game 6 by charter plane. They’re still relatively fresh after three-straight five-game series. They have no significant injuries, at least none we know of. If ever there was a time to ratchet up the speed and finish every check, this would be it.
The boisterous crowd will surely give the Greyhounds a jolt of adrenalin. If the visitors can stay in the game until that passes and keep wearing the Soo down, the latter parts of Wednesday’s contest suggest they could outlast them. Boy, would that ever be helpful.
The Bulldogs must win at least one more game up north to claim the title and advance to the Memorial Cup. It’s hard to love their chances of winning a Game 7
there — two good teams have already tried and failed — so far better to find a way to come home Friday night with the lead and then try to wrap things up on Sunday. Because here’s the secret that often gets overlooked. As good as the Greyhounds have been on home ice winning 10 and losing just two in these playoffs, the Bulldogs (9-2) have been every bit as good on theirs.
Which means if they can find a way to steal a victory on Friday, Game 6 could be pretty special.