Civic Centre will be 'electric' for Bulldogs playoff run
Brantford set to host Ottawa Friday in Game 1 of Eastern Conference quarter-final series
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It will be mayhem on Market Street Friday as the Brantford Bulldogs host the city’s first OHL playoff game in four decades.
Since major junior hockey returned to Brantford following the departure of the Alexanders in 1984, the Civic Centre has provided a clear home-ice advantage to the Bulldogs thanks to some of the loudest crowds in the league.
Brantford captain Lawson Sherk said he and his teammates are anticipating a boisterous crowd when the puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday in Game 1 of their best-of-seven, Eastern Conference quarter-final playoff series against the Ottawa 67’s.
“I think we’re all pretty pumped for what it’s going to be like in Game 1 of the playoffs,” Sherk said following a practice this week.
“This building is electric every single night. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The Bulldogs (37-20-9-2) enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference while Ottawa (36-24-6-2) are seeded sixth. Brantford won the season series against Ottawa 3-1 and despite the fact the 67’s may feel like underdogs, the Bulldogs won’t be looking at things that way.
“They had a heck of a year,” Brantford head coach Jay McKee said.
“I don’t know how many games over .500 they were but they had a really good season. We think they’re a great hockey club.
“They’re deep and have some really talented youth. They’re a good team, top to bottom. We need to be on our toes to have success.”
Ottawa is led on the bench by head coach Dave Cameron, a former NHLer who was the head coach of the Ottawa Senators from 2014 to 2016.
On the ice, forwards Luca Pinelli (48G, 34A) and Braeden Kressler (28G, 46A) along with defenceman Henry Mews (15G, 46A) were the offensive sparkplugs for the 67’s this season.
Ottawa acquired Jacob Maillet (17G, 42A) from Windsor, Samuel Mayer (21G, 32A) from Peterborough and Kressler from the Flint Firebirds at the trade deadline to bolster its team.
In goal, Collin MacKenzie (14-11-2-1, 3.05 goals against average, .901 save percentage) and Ian Michelone (17-10-4-1, 3.73 GAA, .876 save percentage) are a formidable duo.
Michelone was acquired from Windsor at the trade deadline. MacKenzie missed a bulk of the season due to injury and after returning, he left a game on March 22 when he was struck by a shot off his helmet. He did not play in his team’s final game of the regular season, a 5-1 loss to Brantford on March 24.
Published reports indicate MacKenzie is day-to-day and could start Game 1.
After overcoming a 1-5-1 start to the season, a big part of Brantford’s story in the second half of the campaign has been injuries.
With defencemen Tomas Hamara and Cedricson Okitundu both out for much of the new year with lower-body injuries and forward Nick Lardis joining them with an upper-body injury, speculation has run rampant as to when the trio will return.
Earlier this week, general manager Matt Turek wasn’t committing to any of the three getting into the series with Ottawa but he said the status of the injured players has changed.
“I would say they are more day-to-day,” he said, marking an improvement from the week-to-week status the trio has had since being injured.
“I talked to (owner) Michael Andlauer about it (Sunday) and I told him the same thing, all of them are day-to-day.”
McKee would love to see players return from injury but the one upside has been witnessing the depth of the team.
“Everyone wants to be healthy during the season and in playoffs especially but I’ve been impressed with how our group has handled things,” said McKee.
“You lose a top scorer, it would be easy for guys to fold. Then you lose your top defenceman on top of the top forward and then other guys (get injured), they’ve had a lot of reasons to pack it in but they haven’t.
“We’ve been really impressed with the team. No one really moped about the injuries, we just kept pushing.”
Sherk, goaltender Matteo Drobac and defenceman Daniil Sobolev are on their final playoff run as junior players. The captain said there’s added urgency for those players but the entire team is hoping for a long post-season push.
“It’s definitely a little weird knowing it’s my last playoff run but I think it’s motivating me to make this run special,” said Sherk. “It’s really turning on the determination inside of me to make a run here and make it something special to end my career.
“The guys are excited here. Playoffs are always the time when things ramp up. We have some playoff experience from last year and some guys from the (2022 OHL) championship are obviously still here.
“The guys that were here are providing a calming factor for the younger guys who haven’t been in the playoffs before.”
The following is the schedule for the best-of-seven series.
- Game 1: Friday at the civic centre, 7 p.m.
- Game 2: Sunday at the civic centre, 7 p.m.
- Game 3: April 2 in Ottawa at TD Place, 7 p.m.
- Game 4: April 4 in Ottawa at TD Place, 7 p.m.
- Game 5*: April 6 at the civic centre, 7 p.m.
- Game 6*: April 7 in Ottawa at TD Place, 7 p.m.
- Game 7*: April 9 at the civic centre, 7 p.m.
- *If necessary
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