The Bulldogs and Kings met Sunday afternoon for the first meeting between the teams at the Dog Pound since November. The Dogs got off to a good start and had a 4-0 advantage in shots and an early power play chance, but the Kings pushed back with a power play opportunity of their own and in the blink of an eye a 8-4 lead in shots followed quickly by a 1-0 lead on a scramble off an end board bounce as Matthew Dupont banged it home from J.P. Villeneuve and Brian Rideout at 8:10 of the first. The Kings would have ample opportunities around the net to build the lead but Jay Deo was fantastic to keep his team within one. In the dying seconds of the period the Dogs tied it with a buzzer beater as Chase Van Allen had his shot blocked, only to be found by Mitch Makin at the top of the left circle where he spun and fired and found the net with a deflected seeing-eye knuckle puck top corner past Jonah Imoo with1.9 seconds left in the period and a 1-1 tie after one with the Kings leading the shots 17-9.
The second period lacked pace for the most part, with a plethora of whistles and not much in the way of end to end action. Jay Deo would make a fantastic glove save on Evan Richardson in the early stages of the period to keep it 1-1 as a bad pass up the middle was intercepted and Richardson skated in alone and had it labeled but Deo snared it for a highlight reel stop. The Dogs would take their first lead of the game just past the midway mark on a good hard working shift as Ryan Buse threw the puck at the net, where it was tipped on goal by Zach Funk. Imoo would make the first save, but he kicked out a big rebound that was one-timed home by Chase Paylor for his first as a Bulldog and a 2-1 lead at 9:58 of the second. The Dogs would carry that lead into the third, with the Kings holding a 32-17 advantage in shots.
The third period saw no scoring, but lots of power play chances as the Dogs had an early 5 on 3 that they didn’t generate much on, if anything the Kings gained the momentum. The Kings called timeout when they went to a power play with just over three minutes left but just 22 seconds later they ended up in the box when Matt Hansen made a great defensive play in his own end and then raced up ice on a 2 on 1 with Teal Burns where he drew a penalty driving the net off a Burns pass. The Dogs would then go to a 4 on 3 and 5 on 3 power play after Kurt Gosselin was high sticked behind the Kings net. They couldn’t connect on it, although they came close when Teal Burns rang a shot off the cross bar from the side of the net. While they couldn’t connect, the Kings couldn’t get going to try for the equalizer as the Dogs made the lead stand as time expired.
Final shots favoured the Kings 41-32 with Jay Deo picking up the win and 1st star honours while Jonah Imoo took the loss. The Dogs went by my count 0 for 9 on the power play while the Kings went 0 for 5.
Dogs win second straight, 2-1 over Kings
