In front of the largest crowd since March of 2012, the Alberni Valley Bulldogs rallied from a 1-0 3rd period deficit to defeat the Nanaimo Clippers 3-1 on Monday afternoon. The victory was the Bulldogs 8th straight win on home ice, and improved their record to 14-1-1-0 since the Christmas break.
The game had all the feelings of a do or die playoff contest, and perhaps with a little luck fans in the Harbour City and in Hockey Valley will be treated to a playoff series in a couple of months. For now, the Bulldogs will take the win, the 3rd straight over a team that is without question their top rival.
Jake Hewitt did his best to silence the raucous crowd as he scored just 1:26 into the contest. The game would remain scoreless the rest of the way until a dramatic 3rd period.
Despite outshooting the Clippers 31-18 after 2 periods, the Bulldogs had yet to solve Aidan Campbell. Campbell was sensational in the 2nd as he stopped all 17 Bulldog attempts, including some 2-on-1 opportunities.
The Bulldogs would finally break through in the 3rd period as Nicholas Beneteau connected for his 15th of the season. The assists went to Dakota MacIntosh and Will Elger to pull the Bulldogs even at 10:20 of the 3rd.
Just under 2:00 minutes later, the Bulldogs would get the game winner off the stick of Matthew Maltais who tucked home a rebound on the power play for a 2-1 on Bulldogs lead. For Maltais, the goal snapped a 12 game goalless drought. The exuberance was clear on his face as he celebrated the go ahead marker.
David Sacco found the empty net for his 3rd of the year at 19:27 to put the finishing touches on the night for the Bulldogs.
The come from behind victory was the first time all season that the Bulldogs won a game when trailing headed to the 3rd period. Heading into yesterday, they were the only team in the BCHL that was winless in that situation. The Clippers fell to 24-3 when leading after 40 minutes.
Hobie Hedquist was solid when called upon making 24 saves on 25 shots to pick up his 3rd consecutive 1st Star of the game award. Hedquist finished the extended weekend going 3-0-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .968 save %. Hedquist now has 21 wins on the year, and 49 in his Bulldogs career.
Next up for the Bulldogs is a match up on Friday night against the Surrey Eagles. Alberni trails the Eagles by just 5 points for 2nd place in the Coastal Conference standing. Puck drop at the Dawg Pound is 7:00 pm.
