By Dale Lamontagne, Hamilton Bulldogs Correspondent, Bulldogs Hockey Report
HAMILTON, ONT — The Hamilton Bulldogs played host to the Utica Comets, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, in their first game of a three-game set this weekend at FirstOntario Centre. The Comets, who sit in first place in the North Division entered the game with A 22-7-5 record, good enough for 49 points. The Bulldogs, who are third in the North, entered the game with a 15-14-6 record, and have one win in their past five games.
But tonight, the Bulldogs walked away with the win by defeating the Comets by a score of 3-0 on Friday night at the Dog Pound!
GAME RUNDOWN
FIRST PERIOD
The first period of play would see the Bulldogs take a 1-0 lead, thanks to Nick Sorkin on the power-play, which came towards the end of the opening frame. There wasn’t much action in the period, other than the lone Bulldogs goal. But a little after the mid-way mark in the first, Darren Dietz was hit from behind by a Utica player and was down for several seconds before getting back up with help from the trainers.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period would see the Bulldogs score a goal from Daniel Carr, but it would be waved off immediately with 1:25 left in the middle frame. The goal would not count and the ‘Dogs would still have a 1-0 lead after forty minutes of play.
But midway through the period, another scary incident would take place, this time involving defenceman Jarred Tinordi. Tinordi and Andrey Pedan were involved in a staged fight, and Tinordi took a heavy punch to the face area and immediately fell to the ice and was down for a over a minute. Once he got up, with help from teammates, trainers and the officials, there was a ton of blood on the ice. Tinordi went straight to the dressing room and did not return to the game. Head coach Sylvain Lefebvre provided an update after the game and said Tinordi will be re-evaluated on Saturday and will need some dental work done.
If you didn’t see the fight yet, you can watch below (Warning, it may be disturbing.)
THIRD PERIOD
Finally, the third period saw a little more action as the Bulldogs scored two more goals to take the game by a score of 3-0. Maxime Macenauer scored the second goal of the game for the ‘Dogs, extending their lead to 2-0 after roofing it past Eriksson. The Bulldogs then scored an empty net goal, securing the win with the goal coming from Jacob de la Rose, who now has four on the season.
With the win, Mike Condon skated away with his first AHL shutout stopping all 27 shots faced.
NEXT GAME
The Bulldogs are back in action tomorrow as they play host to Lake Erie Monsters, with puck drop expected shortly after 7:00 p.m.
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