Robert Mayer would get the start for Hamilton after Devan Dubnyk played the night before and looked shaky early visibly fighting the puck and giving it away multiple times behind his own net.
Despite that it was Hamilton who would strike first, just after a cross-checking minor to Penguins defenseman Philip Samuelsson expired Martin St. Pierre gather up a rebound and feathered a perfect pass to Gabriel Dumont who had the entire net to shoot at and made no mistake picking up his team leading 15th of the season.
The first period would end without any more scoring but it only took the Penguins 44 seconds to equalize in the second period.
Nick Drazenovic fired a one timer on the powerplay which was tipped in front by Andrew Ebbet for his 10th of the season.
The powerplay proved effective for the Penguins again this time only needing 3 seconds from the start of the man advantage for Tom Kostopoulos to fire a shot from the point that beat Mayer clean and gave WBS the lead.
The night continued to get worse for Robert Mayer as Kostopoulos was stopped on a weak wrap around but Mayer failed to cover and Denver Manderson (real name) slid the puck, and Mayer’s pad, into the net for only his second goal of the season and a two goal cushion.
The Bulldogs would come out of the gate in the third period flying and nearly five minutes in would manage to cut the lead in half.
A slow tap towards the net by Mike Blunden would find a way to squirm through the pads of goaltender Peter Mannino and into the net.
Despite the continuing pressure exhibited by the Dogs, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, they couldn’t find the back of the net and Ebbett would ice the game with his second goal, into the empty net.
For the Bulldogs the loss represents another lost opportunity as the playoffs slip further and further away. For the second time in three weekends the team will get no more than two points out of of three games.
The attendance for the game was a solid 4,744.
The Dogs will be right back at it Sunday afternoon when they host the Lake Erie Monsters, a must win game if they want to have any hope at making the playoffs.
Lake Erie sits in 14th, one point back of Hamilton. If the Bulldogs intend to make a run then they simply can’t lose to a team lower than they are in the standings, especially since that loss would jump the Monsters ahead into 13th.
