The Hamilton Bulldogs take on the Rochester Americans on Wednesday morning, for the Bulldogs Annual School Day Game. The Americans (7-4-1-0) come into this mornings game after defeating the Syracuse Crunch 5-2 on Saturday night. Marcus Foligno had 1 goal, 2 assists, and a +3 rating to help lead his team. Foligno sits 5th in the league in scoring, recording 6 goals, 8 assists in 12 games. The Bulldogs (4-4-1-1) come into the game on a 2 game losing streak after dropping back to back contests, also against the Syracuse Crunch. Robert Mayer was the lone bright spot for the team, earning our player of the week honours. With that said, the Bulldogs are expecting starting goaltender Cedrick Desjardins to make his return sometime this week. Louis Leblanc also skated this week, though he is expected to be missing for another 2 weeks still.
Blake Geoffrion is obviously not playing after his traumatic injury at the Bell Center last Friday. All updates on Geoffrion’s status can be found here. It’s likely that skilled but mysteriously ineffective Russian forward Alexander Avtsin will see his first game action of the year in Geoffrion’s absence.
The Bulldogs lines for today’s game:
Forwards
37 Patrick Holland – 18 Michael Bournival – 17 Brendan Gallagher
13 Steven Quailer – 40 Gabriel Dumont – 28 Aaron Palushaj
14 Michael Blunden (A) – 47 Darryl Boyce (A) – 12 Zack Stortini
11 Alain Berger – 23 Joonas Nattinen – 67 Alexander Avtsin
Defensemen
8 Nathan Beaulieu – 32 Frederic St-Denis (A)
5 Jarred Tinordi – 44 Morgan Ellis
4 Brendon Nash – 3 Antoine Corbin
Goaltenders
29 Robert Mayer
39 Peter Delmas
The Americans lines for todays game:
Forwards
71 Marcus Foligno – 72 Luke Adam – 10 Brian Flynn
28 Zemgus Girgensons – 12 Kevin Porter (C) – 25 Mark Mancari (A)
74 Nick Tarnasky – 32 Rick Schofield – 29 Maxime Legault
91 Frederick Roy – 92 Kevin Sundher – 15 Evan Rankin
Defenseman
2 Joe Finley – 47 Matt MacKenzie
7 Brayden McNabb – 13 Mark Pysyk
3 TJ Brennan (A) – 4 Alex Biega
Goaltenders
33 David Leggio
49 Connor Knapp
You can watch today’s game live on AHLLive ($), or listen to it here. Puck drop is at 10am est.
