From Hamiltonbulldogs.com (BULLDOGS SCARE MONSTERS SCORELESS IN 3-0 SHUTOUT WIN ):
The Hamilton Bulldogs defeated the Lake Erie Monsters 3-0 in front of 4,444 fans at Copps Coliseum on Friday evening. Loic Lacasse earned his first-career AHL shutout after making 22 saves. The shutout marks the first time since the 2002-2003 season that the Bulldogs have had three different ‘Dogs goaltenders record shutouts.
T.J. Kemp opened the game’s scoring with a goal at 7:00 of the first frame. Brock Trotter skated behind the net before sending a pass to Kemp, who skated in from the blue line. Kemp hammered a one-time shot on net that beat Lake Erie starting goaltender Tyler Weiman on the blocker side. The marker was Kemp’s first goal as a Bulldog as the goal he was originally credited with in Tuesday’s game was given to Greg Stewart following the game.
After a scoreless second stanza, the ‘Dogs added their second goal at 5:23 of the final frame. Olivier Latendresse fed a pass through the slot and onto the stick of Mathieu Carle, who had skated to the side of the net. Carle fired a shot over the right shoulder of Weiman for his fifth goal of the season. David Desharnais also earned an assist on the goal, which increases his point streak to seven games. Mike Glumac added the Bulldogs’ third goal at 16:55. Glumac received the puck from Latendresse before he released a slapshot that beat Weiman.
The ‘Dogs travel to Cleveland tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. for game two of their home and home with Lake Erie. Hamilton will then be in Rochester to battle the Americans at 6:05 p.m. on Sunday, January 11th.
Scoring Summary:
1st Period:
1. HAM – T.J. Kemp – 2 (Brock Trotter, Ben Maxwell) – 7:00
2nd Period: No scoring
3rd Period:
2. HAM – Mathieu Carle – 5 (Olivier Latendresse, David Desharnais) – 5:23 (PP)
3. HAM – Mike Glumac – 15 (Olivier Latendresse, David Desharnais) – 16:55
Scoring:
Hamilton: 1-0-2–3
Lake Erie: 0-0-0–0
Shots:
Hamilton: 8-10-6–24
Lake Erie: 7-8-7–22
Goaltending:
Hamilton: Loic Lacasse (22 shots, 22 saves)
Lake Erie: Tyler Weiman (24 shots, 21 saves)
Power Play:
Hamilton: 1-for-5
Lake Erie: 0-for-6
Three Stars:
1. HAM – Loic Lacasse (22 shots, 22 saves)
2. HAM – Olivier Latendresse (2 assists, +1, 2 shots)
3. HAM – Brock Trotter (1 assist, +1, 1 shot)
Flamboro Downs Workhorse: David Desharnais
Habster:
Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much of a drop off in the Bulldogs play with four key players (Pacioretty, Weber, Chipchura and D’Agostini) missing from the ‘Dogs lineup these days.
It just goes to show how much depth there is in the Canadiens prospect pool. When a team can lose that many keys players and continue to play winning hockey, it says a lot about the players on the Bulldogs roster and the coaching from Don Lever and Ron Wilson.
While the Bulldogs’ offense has thrived and been able to find the back of the net on a consistent basis, the strength of this year’s team is on the blueline where players like Shawn Belle, Dan Jancevski (Dallas Stars), Alex Henry and Chad Anderson have thrived and become a solid defensive corp.
The recent addition of Ryan O’Byrne to the Bulldogs roster should also pay huge dividends to the future success of the team. Here’s hoping the extra TOI will allow the hulking defenseman to regain his confidence and further his develop to allow him to return to the Canadiens roster sometime in the near future.
With the offensive contributions of Yannick Weber and Mathieu Carle from the backend, the Bulldogs blueline has a nice balance of youth, veteran experience and offense to defense ratio.
The Bulldogs are ranked third in the AHL with 96 goals against in 37 games (2.6 per game) while on the offensive side, they are also ranked as the third highest scoring team in the AHL with 132 goals scored or 3.5 goals per game (ranked #2).
A key factor to the Bulldogs offensive success has been a solid powerplay which is ranked as the fourth best in the league with a 20.5% success rate.
Yanick Yehoux, David Desharnais, Mike Glumac and Mathieu Carle have picked up the PP production since the recent call-ups but the loss of Yannick Weber could hurt longer term. The addition of offensively talented T.J. Kemp will help the powerplay point shot while Ben Maxwell’s arrival back with the team should also help maintain the PP production.
