Bulldogs end home schedule in style with victory over 67’s
The final Hamilton Bulldogs’ regular-season home game of the season — and beyond — could’ve been a giant downer. Lasts aren’t always a lot of fun.
Instead, this one became a celebration.
The soon-to-be-Brantford Bulldogs gave a crowd of 7,616 at FirstOntario Centre plenty of opportunities to cheer as it pounded the league’s first-place Ottawa 67’s, 6-3, on Sunday afternoon.
They did it against a team that wasn’t just 29 points ahead of them in the standings, but against one that was hot as magma coming into the contest. The 67’s had won nine of their past 10 games. That one loss came in overtime.
Terrific a performance as it was by Hamilton, it wasn’t the only good news from the weekend.
On Friday, the Bulldogs clinched a playoff spot for the sixth-consecutive season when they beat the Niagara IceDogs, 6-2. And — combined with Sunday’s win — kept the door open for some options this post-season.
Hamilton now sits fourth in the conference which would give them home-ice advantage in the opening round. However, to earn that they’ll have to stay ahead of Peterborough the rest of the way.
The challenge? Not only are the Petes just two points behind with two games in hand, but the Bulldogs’ five remaining games — all on the road — feature opponents against whom they’ve gone 2-7 this season. That’s not ideal.
Depending on what happens on this road trip, they could hold tight where they are, drop all the way down to seventh or land somewhere in between. Meaning there are a ton of scenarios still in play and they could face Peterborough, the Barrie Colts or the North Bay Battalion in the first round.
But it all might not matter as much as you might think.
Since seemingly waving the white flag at the trade deadline when the Bulldogs traded away most of their top players for pieces of the future, they’ve gone 5-2 against the top five teams in the league. Including three-straight wins against Ottawa.
Makes you wonder. Could the defending champs have some magic in them?
If last year’s powerhouse squad was a Goliath that swatted away all Davids like little more than annoying gnats, could this year’s side be the David that finds the perfect stone to take out a Goliath or two?
If you’d suggested the answer was “yes” two months ago, someone might’ve suspected you’d had a concussion.
Today?
Not sure it’s quite so crazy a thought anymore.