Bulldogs win despite thin bench –
Blue-liner Weber nets pair in 3-2 OT victory over Senators
TheSpec.com
Garry McKay
HAMILTON — The Hamilton Bulldogs may soon have to start asking their fans to bring their hockey equipment with them to games in case they have to be pressed into service. The Dogs’ injury woes are almost that bad.
You can add centre Mathieu Aubin to the list of Bulldogs who are on the shelf.
Aubin was diagnosed with mono yesterday and will be unavailable anywhere from seven days to six weeks.
That’s in addition to Mike Glumac who is out four to six weeks with a broken bone in his left hand and Thomas Beauregard (knee) and Oliver Latendresse (shoulder) who are out for the season following surgery this past week.
Ryan Flin (back spasms) was unable to play in Friday night’s 3-2 overtime win over the Binghamton Senators which meant the Dogs had to dress one player less than the league limit even though they brought up Tyler Shelast from Idaho of the ECHL.
“This playing just nine or 10 forwards is really catching up to us,” said Hamilton coach Don Lever, who is hoping the big win will give his tired team a boost of life.
“I liked the way we played and our power play came up with a big goal.”
And for a brief time in the first period, it appeared as though they might have lost defenceman Yannick Weber as well. He left the game for a few minutes appearing to favour his shoulder but later returned.
In fact, he scored the Bulldogs’ first and last goals.
He opened the scoring on a slapshot from the right faceoff circle during a wild scramble, on a power play at 18:28 of the second.
He also scored the winner at 1:11 of overtime on a backhand from the left faceoff circle.
[Yannick Weber’s goals] were his 11th and 12th goals of the year which is the most any Dogs defenceman has scored in franchise history. The first was also his eighth on the power play which ties him for the franchise record with Ron Hainsey.
The goals turned helped the understaffed Dogs snap their three-game losing streak.
Mathieu Carle had the other Hamilton goal.
The Senators battled back from two down to tie it on goals by Danny Bois and Greg Mauldin.
Marc Denis made 30 saves in picking up his first win since Dec. 30.
Martin Gerber, who faced only 19 Hamilton shots, took the loss.
The Dogs complete their three-game home stand Sunday at 5 p.m. against Lake Erie. They head out Monday to begin a five-game road trip.
gmckay@thespec.com