Bulldogs dominate opener
Caleb Malhotra and Jake O’Brien each scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Brantford Bulldogs to an 8-1 Ontario Hockey League conquest of the North Bay Battalion in the opening game of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series Wednesday night.
Adam Jiricek had one goal and three assists while Jett Luchanko provided one goal and one assist for Brantford, which finished atop the OHL’s overall standings this season. Cooper Dennis and Luca Testa also scored.
Goaltender Ryerson Leenders contributed 31 saves before 3,174 at the TD Civic Centre as the Bulldogs built period leads of 5-0 and 7-0.
Brandt Harper scored for North Bay, while starting goaltender Jack Lisson surrendered five goals on 19 shots before being relieved by Mike McIvor to start the second period. McIvor, making his second appearance of the postseason, stopped 19 of 22 shots the rest of the way.
The fifth-place Battalion eliminated the fourth-place Peterborough Petes four games to two in the first round, while Brantford swept the eighth-place Sudbury Wolves.
“Clearly, we were just a step behind in all areas of the game today,” said Battalion coach Ryan Oulahen.
“Whether you lose 1-0 or 8-1, it’s a loss in the series. We have a lot of things we can learn from here tonight. It’s a healthy experience for us. Our job is to really rest up and recover here tomorrow so that we’re way fresher and rested and ready to go Friday night.”
Game 2 is scheduled on the same ice at 7 p.m. Friday.
Brantford buried the Battalion with the first-period barrage, starting when Malhotra tapped a rebound home from the right side on the power play at 2:25. O’Brien and Jiricek assisted.
Luchanko scored his first goal of the playoffs at 9:08 when he shoveled the puck off Carter Kunopaski’s leg, assisted by Marek Vanacker and Edison Engle.
Dennis broke off the right wing on a rush and backhanded the puck past Lisson from the lip of the crease at 12:51, and Malhotra struck for his league-leading seventh goal four minutes later.
O’Brien, at the goalmouth, redirected a Vanacker relay from the left-wing boards at 18:37, with the other assist going to Luchanko.
All that followed an apparent Vanacker goal at 1:33 that was disallowed upon video review, which determined that Luchanko was offside on the zone entry.
Jiricek took a pass from Dylan Tsherna from behind the goal line and, slipping around Arseny Pronin, moved in from the blue line to beat McIvor through traffic at 4:35 of the middle frame. Ryder Boulton had the other assist on defenceman Jiricek’s third goal.
Testa was credited with a goal at 14:00, although it appeared the puck never reached him at the left lip of the crease, with an Adam Benak shot instead deflecting off Bronson Ride’s skate. Jiricek had the second assist.
O’Brien connected at 1:46 of the third period, knocking the puck into the net from the right side for his second goal of the playoffs, assisted by Vanacker and Jiricek, before Harper broke Leenders’s shutout bid at 5:28, scoring on a screened right-point drive. Sebastien Gervais and Parker Vaughan drew assists on defenceman Harper’s first goal.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has an all-time won-lost record of 26-19 in the opening game of playoff series, including 9-15 on the road. The Troops are 13-10 since relocation to North Bay for the 2013-14 season … Evgeny Dubrovtsev topped the Troops with five shots on goal. Malhotra and Dennis led Brantford with eight apiece … The Battalion went 0-for-4 on the power play. Brantford was 1-for-1 … Opening lines included Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Gervais and right winger Nick Wellenreiter, Ryder Cali pivoting left winger Shamar Moses and right winger Lirim Amidovski and Cam Warren centring left winger Nolan Laird and right winger Vaughan. Dubrovtsev centred left winger Pronin and right winger Ryder Carey … Defence pairs were Ride with Adrian Manzo, Aaron Enright with Kent Greer and Kunopaski with Harper … The Battalion was without Jonathan Kapageridis, Alexander Karmanov, Kaden Pitre and Hayden Barch … Pitre left the last game of the Peterborough series in the second period after falling awkwardly behind the Battalion net and being helped off the ice … The Battalion bused to accommodations in Cambridge, Ont., after practice Tuesday … Among the missing for Brantford were Jeremy Freeman, Nikolas Rosetto and Philip Govedaris … Ben Danford returned to the Brantford lineup after serving a two-game suspension. He was assessed a major for checking from behind and a game misconduct in a 4-2 home-ice win March 29 against Sudbury.
