By Dale Lamontagne, Hamilton Bulldogs Correspondent, Bulldogs Hockey Report 

HAMILTON, ON — The Hamilton Bulldogs started their three-game homestand on Wednesday night at the FirstOntario Centre against the Adirondack Flames with record of 28-21-0 placing them second in the North Division with 62 points.

GAME RUNDOWN

Although the Hamilton Bulldogs had several quality scoring chances in the first period, the Adirondack Flames entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead thanks to Garnet Hathaway. It was Hathaway who scored his 12th goal of the season beating Hamilton Bulldogs goaltender Mike Condon over the right shoulder.

The Bulldogs had a breakaway opportunity and a 2-on-1 chance, which saw the puck hit the crossbar. Towards the end of the period, the Bulldogs headed onto the power-play and forward TJ Hensick failed to snap the loose puck into the wide open net with just seconds left. Hamilton finished the period with 15 shots on goal, Adirondack  14.

The Bulldogs got their first goal of the game on the power-play after a shot went off the backboards and in front of Brad Thiessen who was out of position and Eric Tangradi batted the puck into the net for his ninth goal of the season.

The Bulldogs got a second power-play of the game, and with four seconds left forward Drayson Bowman put the Bulldogs up 2-1 thanks to a feed from Tangradi just beside the net.

The Flames tied the game at 2-2 with Mark Cundari picking the puck at the blueline for a breakaway chance, which beat Condon giving Cundari his sixth goal of the season.

The Flames extended their lead to 3-2 with 8:37 to go in the second with Nolan Yonkman shooting the puck from the point with Max Reinhart tipping the puck in.

Max Reinhart scored his second goal of the game with a wicked wrist shot that would go top shelf over Condon. The Bulldogs left the period down 4-2 after forty minutes of play.

With 8:32 to go in the period, Bulldogs captain Gabriel Dumont shot in the rebound to make it a one goal game. That was Dumont’s 16th goal of the season and the Flames led 4-3.

The Bulldogs tied up the game thanks to Daniel Carr who cleaned up the rebound and put it top shelf. The Bulldogs and Flames did not score a late third period goal and this game went to overtime, thanks to Carr’s game tying goal.

The Bulldogs and Flames entered overtime but there was no goal scoring in the first five-minutes of play, so the 3-on-3 feature came into play. During the 3-on-3, the Flames capitalized and scored the game winning goal, thanks to Taylor Vause who netted the goal.

THREE STARS OF THE GAME

1) Taylor Vause

2) Max Reinhart

3) Eric Tangradi

Attendance: 2,456