The Alberni Valley Bulldogs defeated the Chilliwack Chiefs 5-1 on Tuesday night to take a 3 games to none lead in the best of 7 Coastal Conference Semifinal series presented by Van Isle Ford.
After consecutive 3-1 wins to open the series in Chilliwack, the Bulldogs gave themselves a little extra breathing room in this contest.
After Chilliwack opened the scoring with their very first power play goal of the playoffs, the Bulldogs rallied with 3 goals in the 2nd period, and put the game away in a chippy 3rd period where it seemed the Chiefs were more interested in settling a score.
Vladimir Nikitin made his series debut in goal for the Chiefs and allowed 5 goals on 32 shots. The rowdy crowd seemed to get under his skin, especially after a 2nd period goal was disallowed after Nikitin quite obviously threw his own mask off.
Despite the offence chipping in with 5, the story once again was Callum Tung.
Tung stopped 44 of 45 shots in the game to earn 1st Star honours for a remarkable 5th straight game. Tung has now stopped 106 of 109 shots in the series, good for a .972 save %. To say the Bulldogs are a confident group in front of the 20 year old goaltender would be an understatement at this point.
The offence came from six different sources for the Bulldogs, including Port Alberni native Caden Tremblay getting his 1st BCHL goal. Sam Léonard (1), Fischer O’Brien (1), Brady McIsaac (2nd), and Grayson Badger (6th) were the other goal scorers.
The fourth win is often the hardest to get in a series, and the Bulldogs will get their first crack at it tomorrow night when they host Game 4 at 7pm. The Bulldogs Box office is open at 10am, or you can skip the trip and buy online by CLICKING HERE.
