It was another day of vital Ontario Hockey League fixtures on Wednesday but not a pleasant one for the Hamilton Bulldogs as they lost 6-3 to rivals Barrie Colts in front of their own crowd.

Hamilton Bulldogs 3:6 Barrie Colts
8,501 students and teachers packed into the FirstOntario Centre but most of them will have left disappointed on Wednesday morning. It has been far from plain sailing for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the 2018/19 season with a record of 10-9 in the Eastern Conference. They welcomed Barrie Colts to their home arena on Wednesday hoping to turn that around.
 

Of course, the Bulldogs came up against their opponents in the postseason finals earlier this year. The Colts were defeated 4-2 during the Conference semifinals as the Bulldogs went all the way. Hamilton got what it wanted when they beat out the SOO Greyhounds with a 4-2 series victory.
There must have been some element of revenge for Colts when they took to the ice on Wednesday evening and it showed as they came out swinging. Goals from Sam Rhodes and Jason Willms gave Colts a 2-0 lead after the first quarter but it didn’t end there. Two powerplay goals from Lucas Chiodo and a second from Rhodes gave the visitors a four-goal lead.
The home side hit back with Brandon Saigeon hitting three goals to take the score to 4-3. However, the comeback ended there as Matej Pekar grabbed one and Chiodo grabbed a second into an empty net. Maksim Zhukov made 33 saves for the winners while Zachary Roy stopped 19 shots at the other end.
It leaves the Bulldogs and head coach Dave Matsos in a tricky spot. They are 10-9-1 on 21 points and are currently eighth in the Eastern Conference. The Bulldogs are well behind leaders Ottawa 67's on 36 points and face another tough test when they take on the Niagra IceDogs. They are the slight outsiders at 27/20 to grab the win on Betway as of November 15

Mississauga Steelheads 4:1 Guelph Storm

Mississauga Steelheads picked up yet another win on Wednesday night when they secured a comfortable win against Guelph Storm. Steelheads went into the match with an 11-6-2 record and grabbed an early lead when Michael Little hit home in the first period.
 


Owen Tippett made it 2-0 in the second period powerplay before Daniil Chayka grabbed one back for Guelph. Steelheads secured the win in the final period when Cole Carter and Alan Lyszczarczyk grabbed a goal each.
Guelph has now lost four of their last five matches but walked away with a point in three of them. Their netminder Anthony Popovich was on fine form against Mississauga despite the four goals his side let in. Popovich made 41 saves on the night, one of which might end up in the running for the best stop of the year.
“I think it’s just a matter of putting some good games back-to-back and getting into that rhythm,” Popovich told Guelph Today.

“I’ve felt good these past few games. I know a couple of them were losses but I felt good that I at least did my part to give us a chance to win. There was a lot of positive things myself and the team could take from those games.”
Erie Otters 6:4 Kitchener Rangers

The 11:00 am start must have been too early for some of the Kitchener Rangers players. It took less than two minutes for Petr Cajka to open the scoring for Erie Otters. Rangers hit back twice when Jonathan Yantsis added to Joseph Garreffa’s powerplay before Otters made it 2-2 before the end of the first period thanks to Brendan Kischnick.
 

Cajka’s second was cancelled out by Rickard Hugg and Rangers even took the lead when Yantsis grabbed his second goal via a powerplay. However, it wasn’t to last as Erie Otters eased ahead in a dominant final period. Chad Yetman scored two goals before Kyle Maksimovich hit one into an empty net to secure the win for his side. His goal and two assists took Maksimovich to 251 points in his OHL career and eighth-place in the all-time scoring for Erie.
“We were still a sleeping a bit off the start,” admitted head coach Chris Hartsburg to Otters TV.

“We skated. That was the biggest difference. We were thinking a little bit too much through two periods and I think we’ve been rewarded.”

 

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