Bulldogs back in Cup
By: Teri Pecoskie May 21, 2018
Regina—The Hamilton Bulldogs have their first win at the Memorial Cup.
Marian Studenic scored with 2:01 left in the third period to lift the team over the WHL champion Swift Current Broncos 2-1 Monday.
Mackenzie Entwistle had the other Bulldogs marker early in the first, Cory Sissons notched the lone Broncos goal on the power play and Swift Current netminder Stuart Skinner was remarkable with 54 saves in the loss.
In the wake of the game, Studenic admitted it was frustrating to spend so much time in the offensive zone without finding the back of the net. His tally, set up by Ben Gleason and scored from the goal line, was Hamilton’s 18th of the period and 55th of the game.
“That was the best goalie performance I ever saw,” he said. “He was good today, but I thought we deserved it for the pace of play.”
The newly assembled trio of Nick Caamano, Robert Thomas and Entwistle, along with blueliners Justin Lemcke and Riley Stillman, were tasked with shutting down Glenn Gawdin and Aleksi Heponiemi, who combined for a ridiculous 243 points this campaign. And they were perfect, rendering the duo pointless and holding it to a combined four shots.
The Broncos put just 22 pucks on net altogether, including 11 in the middle frame.
Gruden praised Entwistle and Caamano in the wake of the game, saying they were outstanding against Gawdin and Heponiemi. In particular, he added, Entwistle’s game has evolved in the playoffs — “like big, power, strong and I knew we needed that against their top line.”
Studenic said the Bulldogs have to go into it with the same game plan. That is, keep it simple, win 50/50 battles and get traffic in front of the net. The Titan are the only that club with a perfect 2-0 record in the competition so far and, as far as head coach John Gruden is concerned, probably Hamilton’s biggest challenge.
“This is going to be a tough game for us tomorrow,” he said.
Gruden said he plans to stick with the same combinations for the matchup with the Titan. He and his coaching staff overhauled their lineup after the team’s loss to the Pats to boost speed and physicality.
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