HabsWorld.net --
It was quiet for the Hamilton Bulldogs this past week with only two hockey games on the team’s schedule. Both were against the Binghamton Senators, the affiliate of the NHL Ottawa Senators.
These games would be the only time that the two hockey clubs face each other this season, but what made this series unique compared to those in the past is the fact that these games were played in the NHL arenas of the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators.
The first game, on Friday November 6, was played in front of over 14,000 fans at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Traditionally, the Bulldogs do not play very well in front of large crowds and unfortunately lost this game by a score of 2-1, thus ending their 11-game points streak and giving the Dogs their first loss to occur in regulation time. Up until this point in the season, the Hamilton Bulldogs were the only team in the American Hockey League which had not lost a regulation time game.
The Sens would take a 2-0 lead, scoring in the first and second periods, putting the puck past Bulldogs starting goaltender Curtis Sanford. P.K. Subban would respond for the Dogs on the power-play in the third period, when he took a pass from Shawn Belle, to score his first career AHL goal.
On Sunday November 8, the Baby Habs and Baby Sens met once again in the second game of their season series, this time at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa.
The crowd attending this game was much more AHL-like, in contrast to Montreal, with an attendance of 4,588 fans.
Cedrick Desjardins received the start in goal for Hamilton and he did not disappoint his family who were in attendance, his Mother and Father having made the drive to Ottawa from their home in New Brunswick, as Desjardins earned his first shutout of the season in only 4 games played with the Bulldogs slamming the door on the Senators 1-0.
Sergei Kostitsyn scored the only goal of the game at 8:48 of the third period to give the Dogs the victory.
The Hamilton Bulldogs now sit in 2nd place in the North Division standings with 20 points (3 points behind the Division-leading Rochester Americans, who happen to be the Bulldogs next opponent) and a 8-1-1-3 record.
