The game was played with a physical element early, with the Bulldogs showing an increased urgency to their game. Each side their chances through the early minutes of the period, with the Bulldogs having the better of them but being unable to cash in on them. The best of them certainly was near the middle of the period when Ryan Miotto was sent in alone on the rush by Aaron Bohlinger, and appeared to have Kurtis Chapman down and out on a deke to his backhand, but the puck rolled off his stick. The Bulldogs had a power play opportunity that saw them get a couple of pucks on net in the final minute of it, but they weren't able to get much in the way of sustained pressure. The Grizzlies would earn a four minute power play late in the period on a high stick that drew blood on Alex Campbell, but the Bulldogs killed it off to the buzzer. Shots werte 12-10 Grizzlies. lost the handle
The second period saw the Bulldogs kill off the remaining 2:45 of the penalty without not giving up much and supporting Hawthorne. The remainder of the period saw the Bulldogs lose their intensity and the crispness to their game, as they weren't able to move the puck with any degree of accuracy and spent too long in their zone as a result of it. The Grizzlies weren't especially sharp themselves, but were the better team, and eventually took a 1-0 lead just past the midway point of the period as Alex Newhook knocked the puck down at centre, and then blocked a play up the middle before carrying it over the Bulldog line up the left side into the circle where he snapped one top corner, perfectly placed short-side over the blocker of Hawthorne. The goal was unassisted at 10:40 of the second. A fantastic chance was a game changing moment a few minutes later as a Sam Pouliot shot from the right point resulted in a rebound to the slot that saw Mitchel Deelstra pull it across the crease be be unable to pot the equalizer into an open net as a desperate paddle in mid air by Chapman got enough of it to keep it out, with the post also perhaps getting a chunk of it afterwards. A minute later, it was 2-0 as the Grizzlies connected on the rush when Nico Somerville drove the net and no one picked him up, as he finished a cross-crease pass out of the right corner by Alex Campbell past a lunging Hawthorne. Alex Newhook picked up a second assist on the play at 15:58, however it should have gone to Riley Hughes. The Bulldogs before and after the goal got away with a surprising number of apparent infractions including a couple of trips and a stick across Kyle McGrath who was in alone on Hawthorne behind the Bulldog defence, but no arms went up. Perhaps not surprisingly, the game became dangerously out of hand soon afterwards, as a Bulldog chance at the Victoria net was stopped by Chapman on a 2 on 1 rush. I didn't see anything at their net following that as I was drawn behind the play where Alex Newhook and Isaac Tonkin-Palmer had just become separated after being tied up for an extended period behind the play with one Referee and one Linesman getting both players separated and diffusing the situation. Or so it appeared, until both Ryan Nolan and Carter Berger would come off the Grizzlies bench to give Tonkin-Palmer the business simultaneously, as one Linesman walked Alex Newhook all the way to the Grizzlies bench. Nolan would bump into Tonkin-Palmer, and then threw a right hand punch to the head of Tonkin-Palmer at the same time as Berger throwing a couple of high and low cross-checks also on him. A Tonkin-Palmer retaliatory shot resulted in another right by Nolan, which was a moment later followed by cross check across the mouth of Tonkin-Palmer from Nolan. Ryan Miotto had arrived in the interim to play peacemaker and get in front of Berger, with Marcus Walter also arriving to speak to the Referee while Jackson Doucet attempted to get between Nolan and Tonkin-Palmer. A punch thrown by Tonkin-Palmer in response to the cross check was followed by another response punch by Nolan, which was seen by Walter, who then stepped in to defend Tonkin-Palmer. Walter at the time would be manhandled out of the pile all the way across the ice to the penalty boxes while the donneybrook continued, resulting in one Linesman to deal with the other 11 or so players, while one Referee watched with forced the other Referee to physically restrain Brady MacDonald from getting involved. Carter Berger re-engaged in the scene to throw a couple of punches over the pile, that might've actually been delivered onto Ryan Nolan. That would result in Miotto to step back in to control Berger, with Mitchel Deelstra getting into that pile while Jordan Guiney and Nico Somerville hovered with Keaton Mastrodonato on the outskirts with Riley Hughes also stepping in, but only to get Deelstra to leave the fray with him. Whew. I think I got that right - or at least that's how I interpreted it to shake down. Old time hockey? The Officials when the dust settled handed out roughing penalties to Tonkin-Palmer and Deelstra along with a double minor to Berger and only a single minor to Nolan, who might've delivered the most in both quality and quantity of shots out of the group. Nolan also picked up a 10, with Marcus Walter given a 10 and a Game misconduct. In the end, the Bulldogs couldn't cash in on the power play to make it a new game, with a couple of shots on net but no traffic or rebounds allowed by Chapman. Hawthorne would make a great save on the rush at the conclusion of the penalty to keep it a two-goal game after 40 minutes. Shots in the period were 12-7 Grizzlies, for a two period total in their favour of 23-17.
The Bulldogs were on their heels on the opening shift of the third, with Hawthorne tested several times but being able to hold the fort. On the next faceoff an almost carbon copy of the 6th goal from the night before made it 3-0 Grizzlies, as Cole Noble went D-to-D from a faceoff win from the left point to the top of the line for Kenny Johnson who blasted a one-timer that Hawthorne got a large piece of, but it just slid over the line at 1:21 of the third. The bulk of the following ten minutes were uneventful, with the Bulldogs having at most a couple of opportunities but being unable to get much on net in what initially looked like promising rushes. The Bulldogs were sent to the box for spearing with under six minutes to play, They managed to kill the first two minutes, but the Grizzlies cashed in late in the second minor during another interested scenario that saw one Referee and one Linesman both spectating and physically intervening between the benches as Kenny Johnson and Austin Spiridakis were tied up and throwing punches. The whistle wouldn't sound and play continued and it became 4-0 as Carter Berger put a backhand feed across the crease to the back post where Hawthorne made a valiant attempt and got a pad on a Kyle McGrath one-timer but it went high short-side off him and in. Jeremie Bucheler also got an assist at 14:06 of the third. One final tally came at the end of a long shift in the Bulldog zone that ended when Alex Campbell was set up at the top of the crease on a short pass from Alex Newhook that was all set up when Riley Hughes was allowed to walk across the zone off the wall into the hashmarks. That would complete the scoring at 17:53 of the third.
Shots in the third were 19-5 Victoria, for a game total of 42-22 in their favour. Kurtis Chapman earned the win and 2nd star honours with the shut out, with John Hawthorne taking the loss. Unofficially, the Bulldogs went 0 for 3 on the power play while the Grizzlies went 1 for 4.
The Bulldogs host the Grizzlies Tuesday night for Game Three and Wednesday night for Game Four.
Hammer
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