(Photograph: Darren Francis)
The Alberni Valley Bulldogs defeated the Chilliwack Chiefs 5-1 in front of 1551 fans on Tuesday night at the Chilliwack Coliseum. With the victory, the Bulldogs have taken a 3-0 lead in the best of 7 series. The Bulldogs will have an opportunity to close out the series tomorrow night in Game 4.
It was a picture-perfect start for the road team as they built up a 2-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes old as Will Elger (5th) scored on the power play, and Dakota MacIntosh got his 10th of the post-season on a clear cut breakaway. The Bulldogs even managed to push the lead to 3-0 with a short-handed goal of the stick of Ethan Bono (7th) with just 30 seconds remaining in the opening period.
The Chiefs pushed back early in the 2nd as they capitalized on that very same power play just :30 second into the 2nd to cut the lead to 3-1. That was as close as the Chiefs would get.
MacIntosh (11th) would get his 2nd of the night at 5:29 as he capped of a beautiful 2-on-1 with Will Elger and then just over two minutes later Cam VanSickle (1st) put home a Brady McIsaac feed from behind the net for a 5-1 lead.
MacIntosh was named the games 1st star with his 2 goals and 1 assist. Will Elger finished with 1+1, while Brandon Buhr picked up 2 assists in the victory.
Campbell Arnold continued his hot run in relief of the injured Hobie Hedquist. Arnold stopped 25 of 26 on the night and improved to 6-1 in the post season with a 2.05 GAA and a .926 save %.
Both clubs finished the game 1 for 3 with the man-advantage and the final shots favoured the Bulldogs 38-26.
Game 4 is set for 6pm tomorrow and if Game 5 is necessary, it will be Friday night at the Dawg Pound.
