Hamilton faced off against Rochester for a rare 10am game, and after a strong start it seems the Dog’s offense took a nap.
The Bulldogs starting the game with a season high 16 shot first period. Despite a strong offensive start the Bulldogs left the period trailing 1-0. Rochester’s David Leggio turned aside all 16 shots he faced and Nick Tarnasky put one past Robert Mayer.
The last time these teams met Fredrick Roy got into a scrap with Brendan Gallagher, this time Roy found himself tangled with Nathan Beaulieu with just over 2 minutes left in the first period. Beaulieu handedly defeated Roy, but the fight did not ignite the Bulldogs.
After recording a season high shot total in the first the Bulldogs pulled a disappearing act in the second and recorded a season low 4 shots in the period. On the other side of the nice the Americans threw 10 shots on net, 3 of which found there way past Mayer.
Brian Flynn, Jerome Leduc-Gauthier, and T.J. Brennan scored the second period goals for the Americans. After Brennan’s goal, at the 15:14 mark, Robert Mayer was pulled in favor of Scott Darling. Darling would make his Bulldogs debut after recently being signed to a professional tryout.
In the third period Joonas Nattinen scored a meaningless goal at the 17:35 point to break David Leggio’s shutout bid. Darling turned aside all 8 shots he faced in 24:32 minutes of game time. The goal was Nattinen’s 1st of the year and included an assist for Antoine Corbin, his first professional point. Gabriel Dumont drew the last assist.
With the loss the Bulldogs have not only dropped 3 in a row, but in that span they have only scored 2 goals.
Over the last two games, Nathan Beaulieu’s solid start at even strength has been completely erased in the +/- column. He’s -6 over that time.
Olivier Bouchard stopped by to offer up some scoring chances and zone starts for the game today.
| Player | Scoring Chances For | Scoring Chances Against | Off ZS | Neu ZS | Def ZS |
| Aaron Palushaj | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Joonas Nattinen | 6 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| Gabriel Dumont | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 3 |
| Mike Blunden | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Darryl Boyce | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| Steven Quailer | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Brendan Gallagher | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Michael Bournival | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Patrick Holland | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Alain Berger | 3 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Kyle Hagel | 0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Zack Stortini | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Jarred Tinordi | 4 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 7 |
| Nathan Beaulieu | 6 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| Frederic St-Denis | 2 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Morgan Ellis | 3 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| Antoine Corbin | 6 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Joe Stejskal | 1 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
Olivier’s Notes:
- Berger is no C and Hagel and Stortini are pure abominations. Add that to the fact that Lefebvre rolls his lines and you end up with the 4th stuck on the ice with 3/6. 11/15/12 were +0/-5, +4/1/-2. 3/6 were +0/-4 and +3/1/-2 together. Of #3’s +6 scoring chances, 4 were with Beaulieu in the last period.
- The TVA Sports guys spent most of the game praising Corbin and mourning #8’s lack of defensive game. Beaulieu’s speed allows him to get away with a tonne of mistakes, but he’s head and shoulders above anyone but St-Denis. Him and Tinordi were paired for the first two periods: +2/-0, +0/3/-3 and Tinordi didn’t look too bad on the right side. 32/44 were +2/-1, +6/5/-4. Those four make a perfectly fine top-4 and give ample protection to whomever mops around as the 3rd pairing. They just need to keep that clusterfuck of a 4th line off the ice.
- 28/23/40 had a +3/-2, +4/2/-1 night. I love Nattinen. Dunno if there is a NHLer in there and they don’t seem interested in playing him at C, but I love him.
- 14/47/13 went +0/-0, +3/3/-4. Boyce and Blunden are who they are, maybe Quailer take a step forward and they get to generate a few chances, but hey, not giving anything is already nice.
- 17/18/37 were split up in the 3rd, but still pulled a +2/-0, +1/1/-3 line. The league seems to have keyed on them, but I’m confident they’ll get over it./
Individual scoring chances:
ES: Palushaj × 2, Dumont × 2, Nattinen × 2, Holland, Berger, Gallagher & Bournival had one each. Dogs had 11 overall, so I obviously forgot to attribute one. The admirals had 12 scoring chances at ES. Low event, boring game.
PP: Blunden x 2 (28/14/13/44/3 on ice), Gallagher x 2 (18/17/37/32/3 on ice) and St-Denis one (18/17/37/32/8 on ice)
PK: Boyce had a SC (40/47/5/32 on ice), 23/40/3/6 gave one chance, 47/28/3/6 gave up 3 chances.
Overall Scoring chances:
| Scenario | Scoring Chances For | Scoring Chances Against |
| Even Strength | 11 | 12 |
| Powerplay | 5 | 0 |
| Penalty Kill | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 17 | 16 |
