The Bulldogs week of action began Wednesday night as they hosted the Vernon Vipers on a snowy night in the Valley. The Dogs came out energized early, but it was the Vipers who got on the board first as Chris Crowell put a shot on net from the top of the left circle on an odd man rush. David Aime, making his home ice debut in the Bulldog net, would make the first save but the rebound was picked up by Rob Short who flipped it in glove side, for a 1-0 Viper lead 12:58 in. John Digness and Chris Crowell picked up the assists.
Minutes later the Vipers would be awarded a penalty shot as Hunter Bishop was bothered on his way to the net on what appeared like nothing more than a partial break at best from the right wing. Bishop brought an unorthodox approach from centre ice slowly weaving, slaloming and snaking from the red line to the blue line, where he started to move his feet and picked up speed to the high slot. From the top of the crease he tried to beat Aime with what looked like a five-hole snap shot. Aime was equal to the task, making the save to keep the game at 1-0 Vernon. Before the period was out the Bulldogs got on the board as Evan Michalchuk worked the puck free for Daniel Moriarty in the left hand corner of the Vipers zone. Moriarty flipped a pass to a wide open Isaac Smeltzer moving in from the point, who snapped a quick high one glove side and under the bar for a 1-1 tie after one. The Dogs came out in the second and carried the play, and they were eventually rewarded for their hard work and desperation as Evan Michalchuk put a wrap around on net that was initially stopped by Viper goaltender Bryce Christianson. Paying the price right in the paint was Marcello Ranallo, who easily tapped it into the wide open net for a 2-1 Dogs lead. Assists on the play went to Michalchuk and Daniel Moriarty at the 6:09 mark. Just over a minute later, the Dogs had a huge chance to further assert themselves as they went to the power play. Instead, it was the Vipers who came out fired up and desperate as they were all over the Dogs for the first half of the penalty. Momentum appeared to further swing in the Vipers favour minutes later as Hunter Bishop tied the game at 2-2 off a feed from Connor Jones in the high slot at the 10:09 mark. Just 16 seconds later Kellen Jones worked the puck from his brother Connor out of the right circle again to Bishop in the slot where he made no mistake again in beating David Aime, all of a sudden it was 3-2 Vipers before the Dogs or the fans in the pound knew what had happened. The Dogs did a good job to stop the bleeding right there, getting momentum back as Chris Moulson took a huge hit to make a pass to Zack Mazo up the left wing through centre ice. Mazo brought the puck over the Viper line and drove the net before finding a streaking Jordan Principalli for the backdoor tap in and a 3-3 tie at the 14:48 mark. Into period three the Bulldogs would come out playing strong, but after a good start they found themselves in big penalty trouble with two penalties called against them in twenty two seconds to put Vernon on a long 5 on 3 for over a minute and a half. This turned out to be a big momentum shift in the Bulldogs favour as the penalty killers held, and David Aime made the saves he had to as the Dogs killed off the two man advantage for Vernon. One big moment on the 5 on 3 saw Isaac Smeltzer playing net behind David Aime, somehow keeping a loose puck from crossing the line during a mad scramble. The Dogs were rewarded shortly afterwards when Evan Michalchuk was fed in the hash mark area by Daniel Moriarty. Michalchuk wasted no time before putting a quick snapper low past Bryce Christianson for a 4-3 Dog lead 8:37 into the final period. Daniel Moriarty and Marcello Ranallo picked up the assists. The Dogs then were unlucky in my opinion to not find a bounce around the net to go up by two goals when just thirty seconds later the Vipers were sent to the penalty box and the Dogs came out and buzzed around the Vipers zone and the Vipers net for what felt like 10 glorious scoring chances. The score would stay tied until the final minutes where Vernon started to put on pressure and gain a territorial advantage. The Dogs were unable to get out of their zone for an extended period and on the end of that sequence a beautiful give-and-go between the Jones brothers and Hunter Bishop ended up in the back of the net as Bishop took the pass right in the high slot and one-timed it low and through David Aime for a 4-4 tie with 2:33 left in regulation. The Vipers would continue to press after they found the tying goal, resulting in a Bulldog penalty with just a half minute left in regulation. The Dogs forced overtime by killing off the first 30 seconds of the penalty. They would then hold off the Vipers power play attack until the final few seconds of the penalty, but they couldn?t kill it all, as before time ran out it was Connor Jones scoring the game winner by tipping in a Scott Zurevinski one-timer from the right point that was set up by his brother Kellen, 1:25 into sudden death overtime. Shots favoured Vernon 46-27 with David Aime and Bryce Christianson being the goalies of record. Both goalies played well. The Vipers were 1 for 4 on the power play while the Dogs were 0 for 4.
The Bulldogs came out and played a good game in this one, especially after coming off of a deflating road trip just two days earlier. In the end, the Hunter Bishop factor was just too much. If anything, the Dogs might be happy that they don?t have to deal with him for more than just two games a season. In the end, any point is a big point so the Dogs will for sure take what they earned with the overtime loss. It may be hard to not look at the point lost with giving up the tying goal and the late penalty though.
The Dogs took Thursday and Friday off from game action before hosting the Surrey Eagles for what would prove to be a low-scoring, playoff like battle. The Dogs had another good start to this game, skating well and generating chances on the rush. It would be penalty troubles that would open this game up as another two man advantage went to the opposition. The Dogs were unable to kill this one off as a nice set up saw Phil Magistrale at the point send the puck to the left side of the net for John Bokla who would quickly tap it right to the top of the crease for Adam Hartley, who would one-time the puck high under the bar glove side on Harrison May for a 1-0 Eagles lead 11:43 into period one. That lead would hold all the way until the latter stages of the second, where the Bulldogs were thinking about finally breaking the goose egg as the Eagles had taken their third straight penalty. It would be the Eagles that would find the net though as a Bulldog defender was unable to hold the Surrey blue line. Ryan Pajimola would find the puck and had great speed up the right wing on the 2 on 1 rush, where he found a streaking Scott Brownlee who tapped the cross crease feed into the open net for the shorthanded goal and a 2-0 Eagles lead with 5:55 left in period two. The Dogs would be undaunted in looking for the ice breaker, but they were unable to beat Justin Mulholland, making his Eagle debut in net. What might?ve been the best chance of the game saw Mulholland absolutely rob James Kerr on a cross crease pass late in the second from Daniel Moriarty. Kerr one-timed the feed into what looked like the open side, but out of nowhere came Mulholland?s glove for the save of the game to keep it 2-0 Eagles after two. The Dogs would eventually find the net to make a game of it early in the third as during a 6 on 5 with a delayed penalty coming to Surrey Daniel Moriarty took a cross-crease pass from Lee Patzer after Chris Moulson kept the puck alive in the right corner. Moriarty one timed it in before Mulholland could get over this time, it was 2-1 Eagles 3:10 into the t
