Tonight, the Bulldogs (11-18-1-2) take on the Rockford Ice Hogs (17-14-1-1) at home. This is the second of two meetings between the teams this season, In the first meeting, the Bulldogs skated to a 6-4 win over Rockford on the road.
The Bulldogs have not scored a goal in 3 games, and the player to score their last goal, Brendon Nash, was traded to San Antonio in exchange for Jason DeSantis. DeSantis, a right handed D, had a career year for the Ice Caps last year, scoring 11 goals, 32 assists in 66 appearances in St Johns. I’m not one to speculate, but I would assume he would be paired with Frederic St-Denis, moving St-Denis back to the left side.
The Ice Hogs come into tonight’s game after a 3-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday night. Rockford has never defeated the Bulldogs in regulation on the road in 9 tries in club history. All time, the Ice Hogs are 2-7-0-0 against the Bulldogs, both victories coming in overtime or shootout.
The Ice Hogs are near the top of the league in penalty minutes, so it is imperative that the Bulldogs get their powerplay working, and even more importantly, keep their penalty kill off the ice. Martin St. Pierre leads the ice hogs with 14 goals, 16 assists in 33 games played.
The key to the game for the ‘Dogs is definitely not only scoring first, but scoring, period. As previously mentioned, the Bulldogs have not scored in 3 games, and have the league’s worst offense, scoring a mere 2.16 goals per game.
Cedrick Desjardins is expected to start tonight, with Robert Mayer likely getting the nod tomorrow.
The puck drops at 7:30 pm, and as always, you can watch it live on AHLLive ($), or listen to it here.
