Bulldogs get fast start
Nikolas Rossetto, Lucas Moore and Calvin Crombie scored first-period goals to spark the Brantford Bulldogs to a 6-3 victory Friday night over the North Bay Battalion in a chippy opener to their Ontario Hockey League first-round playoff series.
Patrick Thomas, Jake O’Brien and Nick Lardis, into an empty net, also scored as first-place Brantford, champions of the East Division, downed the eighth-place Battalion, fifth in the Central Division, to start the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
Lardis also had an assist as goaltender Ryerson Leenders made 30 saves before a crowd of 3,207 at the Brantford Civic Centre.
Nick Wellenreiter scored one goal and earned an assist and Lirim Amidovski and Jacob Therrien provided a goal apiece for North Bay. Goaltender Mike McIvor allowed five goals on 34 shots for the Troops, who had nine skaters making their OHL playoff debuts.
The teams meet again on the same ice at 7 p.m. Sunday before the series shifts to Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens for games Tuesday and Thursday nights.
The style of play that was to mark the game became apparent before the opening faceoff, when Crombie persisted in jousting with Amidovski before the puck was dropped, necessitating official intervention.
Rossetto opened the scoring 2:34 later, converting a pass from the end boards from O’Brien. Marek Vanacker had the other assist on rookie Rossetto’s first OHL playoff goal.
Defenceman Moore struck on the power play at 8:11 on a screened left-point shot. Joshua Avery, who won a right-wing faceoff, and Thomas Budnick assisted.
The Battalion failed to score on a two-man advantage lasting 32 seconds in the middle period before Amidovski struck at 10:28, four seconds after the second penalty expired. Amidovski slipped to the slot to put home the puck after it slid out from the crease, with Wellenreiter and Bronson Ride drawing assists.
Thomas went to the net to redirect a Cole Brown shot at 12:34 for what proved to be the winner, and O’Brien one-timed the puck past McIvor from the left dot on the power play at 15:03.
Wellenreiter snapped home the disc from the top of the right circle on assists by Kent Greer and Shamar Moses at 17:25, cutting the Troops’ deficit to 5-2 through 40 minutes.
Therrien converted a power-play rebound from in front at 17:24 off assists by Moses and Andrew LeBlanc before Lardis scored into the empty net at 18:25, after which he and LeBlanc received misconducts for remarks in front of the benches.
Game 2 can be seen live in North Bay on YourTV Channels 12 and 700.
BATTALION BULLETS: The Battalion has won 21 of 42 playoff series, including 12 of 20 since relocation to North Bay in 2013 … The Battalion has a won-lost record of 106-115 in 221 postseason games, including 48-63 on the road. The Troops are 60-49 in 109 games as North Bay, with a road record of 25-29 … The Battalion is 25-18 in the first game of a playoff series, including 8-14 on the road … North Bay went 1-for-5 on the power play. The Bulldogs, with the OHL’s top-ranked units during the regular season, were 2-for-3 … Wellenreiter, who joined the Battalion in November from the Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia Hockey League, scored his first OHL postseason goal … The Troops bused to Brantford late Thursday for the weekend … Opening lines had Ethan Procyszyn centring left winger Andrew LeBlanc and right winger Therrien, Zach Wigle centring left winger Moses and right winger Parker Vaughan and Ihnat Pazii pivoting left winger Amidovski and right winger Wellenreiter. Nolan Laird centred left winger Reyth Smith and right winger Carey … Defence pairings saw Ride with Jacob LeBlanc, Brayden Turley with Greer and Zach Wilson with Adrian Manzo … The Battalion was without Aaron Enright, Briir Long and Stepan Chukharev … Turley returned from a one-game suspension after drawing head-checking and fighting majors and a game misconduct in a 5-4 road win March 21 over the Niagara IceDogs … Among Brantford’s missing were Daniel Chen and Ben Radley.
Shar
