The Hamilton Bulldogs have taken a 2-1 lead in the OHL Championship.
Brandon Saigeon scored twice as Hamilton held off the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 6-5 in a wild affair Monday night in front of 7,349 fans at FirstOntario Centre.
Ryan Moore and Riley Stillman chipped in with three assists for the Dogs while Kaden Fulcher stopped 28 shots to preserve the victory.
“Our pace was outstanding. 5-on-5 we are a really good team. But we got into some penalty trouble later on to make it quite interesting, and we found a way,” said Hamilton Bulldogs head coach John Gruden.
The Greyhounds opened the scoring for the second game in a row when Joe Carroll beat Fulcher with a wrist shot from a bad angle 1:55 into the game.
But Hamilton’s offence took over with Nicholas Caamano, Arthur Kaliyev and Will Bitten scoring to give the Dogs a 3-1 lead.
“The fans were unbelievable. They gave us a lot of good energy,” Bulldogs winger Brandon Saigeon said.
Sault Ste. Marie captain Tim Gettinger netted his first of two goals on the night with 58.6 seconds left in the first period to trim Hamilton’s lead to one goal.
Saigeon potted his first goal just 18 seconds into the second period when he zipped a wrister over the shoulder of Soo netminder Matthew Villalta.
“The fans were unbelievable. They gave us a lot of good energy,” said Bulldogs winger Saigeon. “I thought we played a good game tonight and if we stay disciplined… I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t be successful.”
Gettinger pulled the Greyhounds to within a goal once again 8:11 later when he beat Fulcher on the power play.
“It’s been a great series. Every game has been a nail biter,” Bulldogs head coach John Gruden said.
But Saigeon answered back with his second tally of the game with 4:03 remaining in the second stanza.
Jack Kopacka, who scored the game-winning goal for the Soo in Game 2, added another power-play marker to cut Hamilton’s lead to 5-4 with 10:15 left in the third period.
Marian Studenic made it 6-4 with 2:58 left in regulation when he lifted the puck into the top shelf on a great individual effort.
The Soo’s Morgan Frost rounded out the scoring, the Greyhounds’ third straight goal with the man advantage, with 1:32 left in the game.
But that is as close as Sault Ste. Marie would come to forcing another overtime in the series.
“I don’t think anyone would really want it any other way, well, maybe myself a little bit,” Gruden said. “There’s going to be no quit in both teams and I expect Wednesday to be even more difficult.”
Hamilton will host Game 4 on Wednesday night.
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