REBELO SCORES FIRST CAREER GOAL IN BULLDOGS 3RD STRAIGHT WIN
ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO. The Hamilton Bulldogs opened the month of December with a quick trip down to St. Catharines to renew acquaintances the Niagara IceDogs Thursday night.
It didn’t take long for the home IceDogs to get on the scoresheet, with Daniel Michaud tipping one past Matteo Drobac for his sixth of the season just 1:14 into the contest. The visiting Bulldogs answered right back with captain Logan Morrison continuing his hot streak notching his 11th goal of the season at 2:51 from an offensive zone setup from Lucas Moore and Gavin White. With just under 5-minutes remaining in the opening frame the Bulldogs put immense pressure on the IceDogs with goaltender Owen Flores staying sharp, making a few key saves off of Avery Hayes, Noah Roberts while Brenden Anderson beat everyone but the post. Roberts was dinged shortly after for a roughing penalty and after Drobac made a beautiful cross crease save to deny an initial shot but Pano Fimis picked up the rebound and fired it past the blocker of Drobac to give the IceDogs a 2-1 lead at 18:32. This lead also didn’t last long however, as Bulldogs defenseman Gavin White drove into the offensive zone off the left wing and ripped a shot through Flores to tie the game at 19:37, collecting his 4th of the season.
It only took 49-seconds into the middle frame for Hamilton to earn their first lead of the game, with Logan Morrison & Gavin White working the puck back to the blueline for Artem Grushnikov to fire a shot through a screen, notching 1st of the season. A short 44-seconds after the Grushnikov goal, Hamilton rookie Florian Xhekaj freed the puck for fellow rookie Adrian Rebelo who broke past the Niagara defense and beat Flores for an absolutely beautiful first career OHL goal. The play was reviewed for offside, but was deemed a good goal, and the Bulldogs led 4-2. Hamilton continued heavy pressure and Owen Flores had to be quick to keep Bulldogs rookie Noah Vandenbrink from earning his first OHL goal, robbing him on the snapshot attempt. Later in the period and with Niagara trying to gain some momentum, Matteo Drobac slammed the door shut in his end, making back-to-back highlight stops stretching leg for the first save and gloving the second attempt to keep the two-goal lead for Hamilton intact. Nearing the halfway point of the period, the Bulldogs earned their first powerplay of the game, and Avery Hayes capitalized on a Logan Morrison rebound in the left circle to make it a 5-2 Hamilton lead.
The final frame was much quieter than the opening two thought it did see a tough moment as Marek Vanacker collided with IceDogs goaltender Owen Flores, sending him briefly out of the game being releaved by Josh Rosenzweig. Flores returned to the game but not before Rozensweig made an astonishing highlight reel glove save on a Bulldogs 3-on-1 opportunity. Just past the midway point of the third period Bulldogs’ defenseman Noah Roberts recieved a 5-minute major and game misconduct for an elbow though the Bulldogs penalty kill allowed just 1-shot over the 5 minutes. The scoring was finished off at 19:15 as Brenden Anderson slid the puck back to the right point for Jorian Donovan who fed Artem Grushnikov off the left to record his 2nd of the game and 2nd of the season to give the Bulldogs a 6-2 lead which would stand to the final horn, with the Bulldogs earning their 3rd straight win and 13th straight win over the IceDogs
The Bulldogs are right back at it tomorrow night in Mississauga for a Friday night matchup against the Steelheads. The puck drops at 7pm at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre.
For more information on Hamilton Bulldogs Holiday Flex packages call 905-529-8500 or visit hamiltonbulldogs.com.
