We have a series.
After losing the first two games of their Ontario Hockey League playoff series, and being outscored 16-5 in the process, the Hamilton Bulldogs skated to a 6-3 victory over the Barrie Colts Sunday night.
The Dogs lost defenceman Florian Xhekaj to a game misconduct five minutes into the game for a check to the head of Barrie’s Brandt Clarke, the OHL’s playoff scoring leader.
Artem Grushnikov had the 3,521 fans at FirstOntario Centre on their feet when he opened the scoring for Hamilton 6:56 into the game and had the hometown crowd celebrating again when he slid the puck down the length of the ice, twice, for empty net insurance markers.
Callum Chisholm evened the score at 1-1 when he beat Hamilton goalie Matteo Drobac with 5:49 left to go in the first period and Jacob Frasca scored 1:08 later to give the Colts their first lead of the contest.
The advantage, however, was short lived as Hamilton’s Adrian Rebelo banged home a rebound to make it 2-2 at 16:17 of the first frame.
The Dogs doubled down midway through the second period when Lawson Sherk and Cole Brown scored 18 seconds apart to give Hamilton a 4-2 lead.
Barrie battled back 2:07 later when Chisholm buried his second goal of the game to cut Hamilton’s lead to 4-3.
Soon after, the Colts lost Clarke when he was given a game misconduct for slamming into Sherk with a knee-on-knee hit at the Bulldogs blueline but Hamilton failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power-play.
The Bulldogs will host Game 4 Tuesday night.
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