Partying like it’s May 13 again
Home has never been sweeter.
On Sunday, the Hamilton Bulldogs play their first game at FirstOntario Centre since May 13, when they downed the heavy favourites from Sault Ste. Marie to become Ontario Hockey League champions — and they plan to celebrate their return in style.
Before facing off against the Ottawa 67’s, the team will be raising banners, handing out bobble heads and rocking to Teenage Head outside their Bay Street North arena. The party gets started at noon, two hours before puck drop.
“It’s definitely going to be special,” said defenceman Nic Mattinen, “It’s going to be a good atmosphere downtown.”
Several players still on the roster this season played a big role in that series-clinching win over the Hounds, including Brandon Saigeon, who scored the goal that sparked the Bulldogs’ comeback, and MacKenzie Entwistle, who set up Nick Caamano’s game winner. Mattinen, meanwhile, was plus-three that day and on the ice for three of his team’s five goals.
All three of them think about it often. The crowd. Their exhaustion. The way it felt to hear that final buzzer sound.
The moment that sticks with Entwistle happened just after that, when former captain Justin Lemcke was handed the Robertson Cup. He hoisted it over his head and his teammates enveloped him — a throbbing mass of black and gold.
“Seeing Lemmer raise that,” he said, “... it still gives me chills.”
Ottawa, one of the three teams the Bulldogs eliminated on route to the OHL final, is expected to contend for the East this season. The 67’s are older, stronger and stocked with returnees,
including top scorer Sasha Chmelevski and Arizona Coyotes prospects Noel Hoefenmayer and Kevin Bahl on the blue line. Winger Kody Clark, the son of Maple Leafs legend Wendel, is also back after a breakout sophomore year.
“We respect them,” said associate coach Vince Laise. “We also practised hard this week, we prepared ourselves and we’re ready to play.”
The Bulldogs will be without head coach Dave Matsos for both their trip to Peterborough on Saturday and their home opener. He is still recovering after collapsing behind the bench in the final minute of Hamilton’s win over host Barrie last weekend.
Laise has been handed the reins in his absence. He’s up for the task, but said Matsos is unequivocally “still the leader of the group.” He also said the two have been in constant communication throughout the week as the team prepared for its games against Peterborough and Ottawa.
At 2-1, the Bulldogs have a good record in home openers since 2015, when they moved here from Belleville. In fact, the only year in which they didn’t open the season with a win on home ice was 2017 before they went on to win the championship.
Notes: The Bulldogs signed goalie Marco Costantini on Friday. The 16-year-old from Stoney Creek — a fifth-round pick of the team in this year’s OHL draft — is expected to spend this season with Hamilton’s Jr. B affiliate, the Kilty B’s, with which he has a 2-1 record, along with a 1.68 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage, in his first three outings ... This isn’t the first time Teenage Head has played a Bulldogs game. The fabled Hamilton punk band also entertained fans of the then-AHL team during the 2003 Calder Cup final.