Last night at the Eagle Builders Centre in Blackfalds, the Prince George Spruce Kings closed out their Alberta road trip with a 7-3 loss to the Bulldogs on a memorable Special Olympics Night. A lighting issue delayed the start, but once underway, the game featured the return of defenseman Trent LeDrew, who faced his former team after being traded to Prince George last season. The Bulldogs dominated, building a 3-2 lead after a high-scoring first period and pulling away with two goals in each of the second and third. For the second night in a row the Bulldogs faced teams that had they not had strong goaltending the scores would of been worse.
Dean Toskos got the Bulldogs on the board early at 2:07 of the first period scoring his 6th goal of the season. The assists on the goal went to Nikita Ivashchenko and Alex Bosland.
Matthew Croxall made it a 2-0 game for the Bulldogs at 13:14 of the first period with a very strange bounce that had everyone in the building confused. Part of me felt a tad bad for goalie Ryder Green on that one especially after he made so many awesome looking key saves prior to that bounce. The assists on the goal went to Nicholas DiPaolo and Thomas Neu.
Former Wellington Duke Ben Vreugdenhil scored for the Spruce Kings on a 5 on 3 Power Play at 14:36 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Carter Hesselgrave and Ozbej Rep.
Joey Melo got the Bulldogs back up by 2 to make it a 3-1 game at 17:37 of the first period while on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to Brendan Giles and Nikita Ivashchenko.
Quesnel, B.C native Carter Hesselgrave gets his 12th goal of the season to get the Spruce Kings within 1 and make it a 3-2 game. The assist on the goal went to Hokkaido, Japan native Tai Ushio.
Shots on goal in the first period were 13-6 for the Bulldogs.
Antoine Gauthier made it a 4-2 game almost right off the draw at 7:12 of the second period. The assists on the goal went to Jared Langdon and newcomer Duncan Thompson. Thompson is from London, Ontario and is commit to Sacred Heart University.
Joey Melo somehow managed to find Nikita Ivashchenko on a 2 on 1 (that PG defender got so lazy on that play🤣🤣 wow he like let him walk in like he wanted him to score🤣) to make it a 5-2 Bulldogs game at 9:47 of the second period while on the Power Play. The other assist on the goal went to Noah Mertz.
Frankford, Ontario native Ben Vreugdenhil scored his second goal of the game at 10:37 of the second period to make it a 5-3 game. The assist went to former Anchorage Wolverine Tai Ushio.
Shots on goal in the second period were 11-10 for the Bulldogs
Antoine Gauthier makes it a 6-3 game for the Bulldogs getting his second of the night teeing up a rocket one timer fed to him from Alex Bosland on the Power Play at 4:53 of the third period. Duncan Thompson picked up his second assist of the game on that goal also.
Danny Hussa whose been on fire lately ripped down the ice and fired in his 6th goal of the season on an unassisted goal at 10:23 of the third period. That was the end of Ryder Green’s night who appeared to self eject himself from the game and head down to the dressing room. He had a great game though. The Bulldogs offence was too strong tonight.
Shots on goal in the third period were 11-7 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Spruce Kings in the game 32-23.
Carson Mertz made 20 saves on the 23 shots that he faced for the win for the Bulldogs. For the Spruce Kings Prince George native Ryder Green stopped 22 of the 29 shots that he faced. He was replaced after the 7th goal by former Drayton Valley Thunder goalie Colin Reay who stopped all 6 of the shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game 1) Nikita Ivashchenko 2) Joey Melo 3) Antoine Gauthier
Attendance in Blackfalds was 727
Bulldogs next game is Friday January 9th in Brooks to take on the Bandits. The Bulldogs next home game is January 10th Saturday to face the Chilliwack Chiefs who ice former Bulldogs Jack Plandowski and Connor Dick.
