The Brantford Bulldogs put on a strong performance, winning 5-2 over the Flint Firebirds on Wednesday, January 8, 2025.
Brantford controlled the game at the early stage of the first period, highlighted by a clean hit by D Lucas Moore on Firebirds C Kaden Pitre.
Around the halfway mark of the period, Bulldogs G Ryerson Leenders was temporarily removed from the game due to a malfunction on his skate. David Egorov came to the game in relief, which lasted over two minutes.
Ranked sixth-best in the OHL coming into the game, the Bulldogs powerplay unit went to work and wasted no time. At 10:08, C Joshua Avery batted the puck, and his shot got past Firebirds G Nathan Day for his seventh of the season.
Shortly after the goal, Leenders returned to the game after the team equipment staff resolved the skate issue.
Goals from D Noah Roberts and LW Cole Brown gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead, but Flint responded with a goal by LW Hayden Reid before the period ended.
At 2:53 into the second period, the Firebirds came within a goal after RW Alex Kostov scored off a rebound past Leenders.
But the Bulldogs restored the two-goal lead at 7:44 as the shot from LW Aiden O’Donnell snuck past the Flint netminder for his sixth of the season.
In the third period, the top line of the Bulldogs put the game on ice as Brown provided a beautiful pass to RW Nick Lardis, who tipped the puck past Day for his 33rd goal of the season.
