Dogs top Kings 5-3 in a wild one at the Dog Pound

The Bulldogs looked refreshed coming out of the break as they were flying off the opening puck drop, taking a 1-0 lead just 1:11 into the game when Josh Adkins won a race onto a loose puck in the Kings zone in the right circle and put a perfect cross-ice pass into the slot onto the tape of Everett Putz who beat Stefan Wornig with a gorgeous finish top corner, glove side. A back and forth period with lots of pucks on both nets saw the score stay 1-0 until the late stages of the frame with Billy Christopoulos coming up with a series of huge saves to protect the lead. The Kings would get on the board with less five minutes to play when Jarid Lukosevicius intercepted a pass in the Kings zone and raced end to end up the left wing where he beat a Bulldog defenceman wide and then cut across the crease and stuffed it home past the far pad of Christopoulos. The goal was un-assisted at 15:28 of the first as it was a 1-1 game. The Kings would be penalized after the whistle at the Bulldogs net when things got hot and heavy at the whistle, which was a theme throughout the period. The Dogs connected on the advantage 1:59 after the Kings had tied it to take the lead right back as Scott Clark dug the puck out of the right corner to Drew Weich at the right point, who slid the puck across the line to Kurt Gosselin, who blew a slapper on net that was stopped by Wornig. He couldn't control the rebound though, as Mitch Makin found it and roofed it top corner, glove side at 18:27 for a 2-1 Dogs lead after 20 minutes, with the Dogs up 19-17 in the shots.

The second period was again hotly contested, with neither team able to find the net through the first half of the period. The Bulldogs would have a plethora of power play opportunities, thanks in part to the Kings picking up a couple of Bench Minors. The Dogs would fail to capitalize on those chances, and also failed to connect on a long 5 on 3 power play of over 1:20 in duration, but no without earning a bunch of chances around the Kings net. The Dogs came painfully close, with both Scott Clark and Kurt Gosselin hitting the crossbar but being unable to get it to go past Wornig. Mitch Makin would also be robbed by Wornig on a save of the year candidate, as he threw his glove behind him on the goal line to rob Makin on a cross-crease one-timer. The Kings would answer back with just 20 seconds to go in the period when Carmine Buono came out of the penalty box behind the Bulldogs defence. He would chase the loose puck down and get a weak shot on net that was stopped by Christopoulos, but Kurt Keats beat the Bulldog backcheckers to the Dogs net and lifted the rebound home to make it a 2-2 game at 19:39 of the second. The Bulldogs out shot  the Kings 18-10 in the frame for a 40 minute advantage of 37-27.

The Dogs took their third lead of the game just over five minutes into the third period when Mitch Makin won a race to a loose puck in the Kings zone and put it behind the net for Chris Schutz who put it right out front from a sharp angle onto the stick of Scottie Clark at the left side of the net where he one-timed it home to make it 3-2 at 5:03. The score stayed that way until the back half of the period when Garrett Halls out-letted the puck to Dylan Haugen who carried the puck up the left wing and over the Kings line where he dropped it to Halls who walked into the top of the left circle where he ripped one top corner and over the glove of Wornig bar and in to make it 4-2 at 13:19 of the third. It was a 5-2 game less than a minute later when Drake Brown put a pass ahead at centre to Eric Therrien, who just left the puck as he saw Zak Bowles absolutely flying up ice. Bowles would blow through the Kings defence and in on goal where Wornig got a good piece of it to keep it out initially. A King back-checking to the net would fall on top of him as the puck trickled over the line to make it 5-2 at the 14:16 mark of the third. The Kings would get one back with just under two minutes to play when Jacob Pritchard knocked down an outlet pass and put a rink-wide feed onto the tape of Nick Halagian who beat Christopoulos seven-hole to make it 5-3 at 18:17 of the third. The Kings would have several in tight chances as time ran down but Christopoulos made back-to-back pad saves to protect the lead.

Final shots favoured the Bulldogs 52-37 with Billy Christopoulos picking up the win while Stefan Wornig took the loss. I had the Dogs at 1 for 9 on the power play while the Kings went 0 for 3.