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After seemingly turning the corner last week, the Hamilton Bulldogs crashed back down to earth this week, failing to win a game out of 3 chances, the first time this year that has happened.  In Rochester on Wednesday, Dan Ellis had his best game as a Bulldog, but the offence went dry again as they fell 1-0 to the Americans.  On Friday at home vs Binghamton, the offence woke up, but Yann Danis couldn’t hold the lead in the 3rd.  It eventually went to a shootout, where Hamilton lost 2-0; final score 4-3 Senators.  The next night saw familiar instances occurring, Ellis had a fairly strong game in net, but there was no offence to speak of, as the Bulldogs fell 3-0 to the Cleveland Barons.

No, no Ribeiro

Reports out of Montreal surfaced this week that Canadiens C Mike Ribeiro expressed an interest in suiting up in Hamilton this season.  Later, the talk became that he simply wanted to practice with them, but that was shot down.  GM Bob Gainey denied his request, as he did earlier with Pierre Dagenais, citing an overload of players on the roster already.

The hip new thing, the shootout

On Friday night, the Hamilton Bulldogs participated in their first shootout in franchise history, one they ultimately lost 2-0 to the Senators.  Before each game, the teams must submit a shootout roster, that cannot be altered except for special circumstances (injury or a match penalty).  We didn’t get a chance to find out their full roster, as a 5th shooter wasn’t needed.  The first 4 shooters were as follows: Tomas Plekanec, Corey Locke, Duncan Milroy, and Chris Higgins.  The final shooter may have been Jason Ward or Andrei Kostitsyn, but that’s merely speculation.

ECHL Report

The Ice Dogs yet again went 2-1 this week, with the help of a couple of Canadiens prospects.  G Olivier Michaud played solid, going 1-1, improving his season record to 1-2 with a 3.00 GAA and a strong .913 SV%.  Christian Larrivee continues to struggle offensively, with just a pair of assists in 9 games, with a -2 rating.  C Cory Urquhart is playing very well though, compiling a pair of assists this week, giving him 2 goals and 2 assists in 6 games so far this year.  He also has a +2 rating.  Long Beach is now 6-3, good for 5th in the West Division.

Goalie Zone

Unlike the last couple of weeks, there isn’t a whole lot to be happy about.  Dan Ellis played fairly solid, but received 0 goals for support twice this week, and 3 times on the season.  In fact, the 0-7 netminder has had less than 2 goals per game for support so far this season.  He now has an improving 3.13 GAA and .904 SV%.  Yann Danis arguably had the weakest game of his young AHL career, but it wasn’t too bad, allowing 3 goals, and losing in a shootout.  He now has a 6-2 record (1 OTL and 1 SOL), with a 1.71 GAA and a .941 SV%.  Combined, the 2 have a 6-10 record with a 2.47 GAA and a .921 SV%; both rank in the top-10 in the AHL.

News and Notes

W Jason Ward was named captain of the team this week … Steve Ott’s goal Tuesday was his first of the season, despite playing with Plekanec and Ward virtually all season … Prior to Saturday’s game, D Matt Shasby had been a scratch for 5 straight games, F Benjamin Carpentier for 4 straight … There were a total of 8 fights in the 3 Hamilton games this week, which almost equaled their season total.

The Infirmary

D Mike Komisarek (hip), out 10-14 days
D Jean-Phillipe Cote (shoulder), out indefinitely
C Antti Miettinen (shoulder), out 12-14 weeks
C Benoit Dusablon (undisclosed), out indefinitely

The Weekly Bulldogs Stat Pack:

Weekly Scoring Summary:

1) Locke (Hainsey) PP
2) Milroy (Higgins) PP
3) Ott (Ward, Plekanec)