Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Though it certainly wasn’t how they drew it up, the Deseronto Bulldogs finished the regular season with a gift win on Saturday, allowing them to finish the season an exactly .500.
Early Saturday morning the Bulldogs announced via social media that their scheduled home game against the Cornwall Prowlers had been cancelled.
“Cornwall has forfeited the game and we have been awarded the win, meaning we now finish the season with a 10-10 (.500) record,” reads a post on the Bulldogs’ Facebook page. “We as an organization take pride in providing quality, entertaining and competitive hockey games to our fans and although we are disappointed that the Cornwall Prowlers had to forfeit, we feel that this game may not have met expectations that our amazing fans deserve, had they not decided to do so.”
The net result is for the first time in their three-year history, the Bulldogs didn’t lose more than they won in the regular season.
They’ll look to continue to build on their best season to date with a deep Eastern Ontario Super Hockey League playoff run, starting with a wild card match against the Arnprior Rivermen. The series kicks off this Saturday in Arnprior at the Nick Smith Centre in a must-win for the Bulldogs. The Rivermen, by virtue of being the higher seed, have a double-life in the series, while the Bulldogs must win both games to advance to the next round. If the Bulldogs can win Saturday, they would bring the series back to Deseronto for Game 2 on Sunday, 3:30 p.m. at the Deseronto Community Rec Centre. The winner of that game would advance to the next round, a best-of-five with the Tweed Oil Kings.
The two teams come into this weekend’s wild card match fairly evenly matched, with Arnprior finishing just one point better in the standings, that by virtue of one overtime loss, making for a 10-9-1 record. That one point difference looms large however, giving the Rivermen home ice in Game 1 and the double-life.
Arnprior scored 102 goals on the season while allowing 109 compared to the Bulldogs who hit the back of the net 95 times while allowing 100. Head-to-head the Rivermen swept the season series with a 5-4 win in Deseronto on Nov. 5 and a 6-2 home win on Nov. 19. The Bulldogs enter the playoffs on a two game win streak however, the Rivermen losing two straight.
Joey Mayer finished the regular season as the Bulldogs’ top scorer with 11 goals and 13 assists in 16 games. Brodie Maracle led the team with 18 assists. Luigi Martone was third in points with seven goals and 13 assists, just ahead of Noah Brant who had 10 goals and 10 helpers in 15 games.
In net Corey Kuypers led the team in wins, going 6-6 with a 5.48 GAA. Graeme Gemmill was 2-1 in four games with a 4.23 GAA and Brady Sarazin went 1-3 with a 5.11 GAA.
As for the Rivermen, their attack is led by Ryan Peck who had 16 goals and 19 assists, followed by Adrian Moyes with 11 goals and 13 assists and Alex Hulford with six goals and 17 helpers.
In net Erik Misksik earned the most wins with four and a 5.24 GAA in 11 games. Patrick Killeen and Mike McDonald both picked up three wins with a 4.85 and 5.00 GAA respectively.