The Hamilton Bulldogs showed no fear on the ice disposing the Acadie-Bathust Titan 3-2 on Tuesday at the 2018 Mastercard Memorial Cup in Regina, Saskatchewan.
The kids from the Steel City were led by Brandon Saigeon and Benjmain Gleason who had two points each for the Bulldogs who now await the winner of tonight’s game between the Swift Current Broncos and Regina Pats to determine whether or not they get a bye straight into Sunday’s final.
“We knew we had a tough first game that wasn’t our style of play, we had a big win yesterday and followed that up. We knew we had to get a lot of shots on their goalie and score first and we needed both our power-play and penalty kill as strong as it was,” explained Gleason.
The @BulldogsOHL hand the @ABTitan their first loss, grinding out a 3-2 victory to finish their #MCMemorialCup round robin with a 2-1 record. #MMC100
STATS: https://t.co/Vt84pJo4L6 pic.twitter.com/UKD7jbYhzk
— CanadianHockeyLeague (@CHLHockey) May 23, 2018
It was an interesting scenario for both teams heading into the game as a Bulldogs win over the Titan by two or more goals would have vaulted them straight into the final, while the Titan needed a win for a bye into the championship game or a loss by one goal to keep those hopes alive.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period and carried a 2-1 advantage upon the completion of 40 minutes leading to an interesting final frame.
Robert Thomas scored on the power-play for Hamilton to make it 3-1 but Jeffery Viel cut the deficit in half for Acadie-Bathurst at 3:44 of the third period.
The plot thickened late in the game as Titan Head Coach Mario Pouliot elected to leave starting goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick in net instead of making it a 6-on-4 power-play with less than two minutes remaining to tie the contest and force overtime.
The CHL unveiled the tie-breaking scenarios following the outcome of the game and it goes like this:
A win by the Broncos on Wednesday would bring their record to 1-2 drawing even with the Pats. Based on this result the Bulldogs would gain automatic entry into Sunday’s Championship Final while the Titan would be the home team in Friday’s Semi-Final. The Broncos would be the home team in a Tie-Breaker game against the Pats on Thursday.
A win by the Pats on Wednesday would bring their record to 2-1 drawing even with the Bulldogs and Titan. The Broncos (0-3) would be eliminated and Acadie-Bathurst would get a bye into Sunday’s final.
Game 5 #MCMemorialCup:
Thomas gave @OHLHockey’s @BulldogsOHL a 3-1 lead but Asselin brought @QMJHL’s @ABTitan back to within one for an exciting third period finish.#MMC100 pic.twitter.com/UsVORDCgkT
— CanadianHockeyLeague (@CHLHockey) May 23, 2018