By Dale Lamontagne, Hamilton Bulldogs Correspondent, Bulldogs Hockey Report

HAMILTON, ONT — The Hamilton Bulldogs entered tonight’s contest against North Division rivals, the Toronto Marlies, hoping to find their way back to the win column as they suffered a 3-2 loss to the league leading Utica Comets on Wednesday.  They did just that, taking down the Marlies 2-1 on home ice.

GAME RUNDOWN 

The thing with these Bulldogs – Marlies games is, they play each other 12 times this season, because well,  it’s AHL hockey and they’re just a quick 30 minute bus ride down the highway. But, one thing is for sure, each game they play is exciting and it’s a ton of fun to watch – and tonight was no different.

Although there was no score after the first period of play, we saw a ton of action, that reassured us that the Bulldogs and Marlies don’t really like each other.

David Broll and Jack Nevins dropped the glove 15 minutes into the opening frame. I would say the fight would draw an even card, after both players threw multiple punches one after another.

It’s worth noting that Mike Condon made a handful of easy glove saves, which kept the game scoreless.

The second period would see its first goal of the game, but from the opposing Marlies squad.

David Booth, who was sent down to the AHL from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday for conditioning purposes, scored his first goal of the season as he buried a shot that came off the backboards on the power-play.

Towards the end of the period, a scary incident took place as Jake Dowell hit Marlies defenceman Viktor Loov directly in the head, with him colliding into the boards.

Sam Carrick stuck up for his player and dropped the gloves with Dowell.

Loov went directly to the dressing room, but then came back out for the final few minutes of the game and he appeared to be okay.

The third period saw the Bulldogs tie the game on the power-play, as Charles Hudon blasted a shot from the point, which beat Christopher Gibson on the blocker side.

With about five minutes left in the third period, the Bulldogs scored, but it was waived off immediately as Eric Tangradi went to the box for goaltender interference. No goal, and it was the right call.

At the end of 60-minutes of play, the Bulldogs and Marlies remained tied 1-1, so in came the overtime.

With 2:22 left in overtime, defenceman Greg Pateryn scored the game winner with a helluva slap shot, that beat Gibson on the blocker side.

Bulldogs take the game 2-1, to improve to a 7-8-2 record.

WHO WAS IN, WHO WAS OUT?

Scratches: Mac Bennett
Injuries: Christian Thomas 

LOOKING AHEAD 

The Bulldogs are back in action on Sunday, as they travel down the QEW to take on the Toronto Marlies for the fourth time this season.