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The Hamilton Bulldogs hosted Grand Rapids in a Saturday night contest for their second home game in less than 24 hours.
The Bulldogs, despite taking a ton of penalties, managed to get it to the
shootout but fell by a score of 4-3.

Hamilton was led by veteran Greg Pateryn who
potted his second goal of the season in as many nights to get the Dogs on the board. With Pateryn’s goal Hamilton would lead by one to end the first. Pateryn
added in an assist later with his helper on Sven Andrighetto’s goal.

In the second, Grand Rapids Gustav Nyquist scored his second of the year to tie the game at one. Not long after, Andrighetto
tallied his first career AHL goal from Pateryn and Patrick Holland. Calle
Jarnkrok of the Griffins tied it up before the end of the second; it was also
his first career AHL marker.

The Griffins would put in their final goal of regulation time six minutes into
the third to give them their first lead of the night as Jeff Hoggan potted a
powerplay goal.  Hamilton wouldn’t answer until pulling Robert Mayer from the net
in the final minute.  With just 10 seconds left in regulation, Akim Aliu found the back of the net to tie the game at three.  Andrighetto and
captain Martin St. Pierre earned the assists. Hamilton and the Griffins headed into the 5-minute sudden death overtime period… but at the end of
five were still tied up.  The Bulldogs were unable to score in the
shootout; full results are below.

Hamilton:

St. Pierre: Post
Andrighetto: Missed Net
Aliu: Post
Nystrom: Save
Holland: Save

Grand Rapids:

Ouellet: Lost control of puck
Emmerton: Save
Nyquist: Goal
Aimquist: Save

Penalties were a big concern for the Bulldogs throughout the
game; their penalties totalled 23 minutes.  The Griffins were able to
capitalize on two of their nine powerplays while Hamilton was one for three with
the man advantage.  Despite the loss, Mayer played a strong game making a total of 38 saves on 42 shots
while Griffins’ goalie Petr Mrazek made 21 stops on Hamilton’s 24 shots. After this
game, Mayer sits in 18th for save percentage with a .927 SV%.

Three Stars

1. Gustav Nyquist – Grand Rapids
2. Robert Mayer – Hamilton
3. Jeff Hoggan – Grand Rapids

Highlights

With the loss, the Bulldogs now move to a 1-0-1 record
and drop to third in the North Division, just one point behind the Lake Erie Monsters.  Hamilton’s next game will be on Friday the 18th at Lake Erie
(affiliate of Colorado) for their first of two road games next week as they also head to Toronto on the 20th.  The Bulldogs will be back at Copps
Coliseum in Hamilton on the 22nd when they host Rockford.