The Bullets would like to send out warm birthday wishes to their captain Brandon Spears.

 

Whatever you do to celebrate your 23rd birthday, we know that you'll dominate it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the third straight game, The Bullets looked hungry for victory. Fortunately, unlike during last week's falter, there was even more bite in their bark than ever before, and a late second period collapse would not prevent The Bullets from experiencing the bliss of success.

 

The Bullets certainly capitalized in this low shooting game. The final shot total was recorded as 16-10 in favour of The Bullets. With a five goal effort, The Bullets scored on an astounding 31% of their shots.

 

Matt Ockrant scored two beautiful goals in the first period - one early and one late, with Mike Adelson assisting on both. Ockrant's first goal was started on a wonderful breakout and finished with a top-notch individual effort. His second was a one-timer on a nice setup by Adelson who managed to allude a defender and centre it for Ockrant to bury it. Brandon Spears was called for a roughing penalty on the play, although replays show Adelson may have been the culprit.

 

The second period is one that goaltender Benji Lightstone forgot about the moment it ended. Lightstone only faced three shots during the period - an obvious sign of the quality defensive work by B. Spears, Adelson, Bruce Mackenzie, Ari Greenberg and of course the whole forward corps. Sadly though, Lightstone did not stop any of those shots. The Bullets would have found themselves down by one had Mark Leibtog not scored his first goal of the season. The goal was Leibtog's second point in as many games. 

 

While Lightstone settled down and stopped every shot he faced during the period, Ben Ashkin really stepped it up. He scored two goals in the period, in addition to an assist earned on Leibtog's goal. That's a trio of points to his season's total! The game winner was one to remember - a perfectly placed slapshot from outside of the blueline! His other, which put the game away, was a sizzling wrist shot that picked the corner.

 

The Bullets defensemen have been contributing a lot offensively thus far in the season. Four points (all assists) were recorded by Bullets defensemen tonight. 

 

Ashkin once again found himself in the penalty box (twice actually) - that's eight straight games dating back to last season!

 

Next week's game is sure to special, as The Bullets take on the Vaughan Blademen for the first time in franchise history. Starting in net will be Dustin Stroll, who earned a tie in his last start. He is champing at the bit to get back in there and battle it out for his first win of the season. Puckdrop is an early 4:00pm - see you there! 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not the path that The Bullets want to go down. No, not this season!

 

Although The Bullets dominated the Puck Scorchers throughout the game, after allowing a couple of quick goals against late in the game, The Bullets were forced to settle for a tie.

 

Blowing third peirod leads is not unfamiliar for The Bullets. An almost shocking statistic shows that in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, The Bullets blew a combined total of 11 third period leads (most of which resulted in a loss).

 

It is useless to dwell on the past, but that humbling stat is something that The Bullets will surely want to fix. It is one thing to blow a lead - it is another to be able to recover from that and persevere on to win the game. Unfortunately The Bullets could not do that tonight.

 

That is not to say that there weren't good things to take from the game. For starters, The Bullets outshot the Scorchers 38-19. The last time The Bullets recorded more than 35 shots in a game was over a year ago, on May 22nd, 2007.

 

Captain Brandon Spears scored two goals (along with an assist), one of which would be a "Highlight of the Night" candidate on any sports television program. With under four minutes remaining in the first period, Spears circled the net and, being reminiscent of Henrik Zetterberg and Alex Ovechkin, scored on a backward-spinning shot as he whacked the puck into the net. 

 

Matt Ockrant scored a short-handed goal. He looks poised to explode offensively sooner rather than later. Right now, Bullets centremen Ockrant and Ben Ashkin (who also scored in the match) are arguably the best 1-2 centres in the league.

 

After starting a bit edgy and taking a four minute slashing penalty, goaltender Dustin Stroll calmed down and looked pretty solid, stopping 15 of 19 shots.    

 

It was a parade to the penalty box for both teams tonight. While The Bullets want to be more disciplined in future games, they can't be upset with their special teams performance. They successfully killed 6 out of 7 powerplays against them and were an impressive 2 for 6 on the powerplay.

 

The Bullets will surely rebound from this game. Next week's opponent is the Dufferin Steelers and puckdrop is at 9:40pm.

 

Notes: Polar opposites -> Dave Preston's penalty-less streak has finally been snapped. After 46 full games, Preston received his first penalty early in the third period of tonight's game. Ironically, the replay clearly showed a different Bullet player as the culprit on the play, but Preston was still called. Meanwhile, Ben Ashkin has gotten a minor penalty in all four Bullets games this season (and seven in a row dating back to last season). Despite only playing 19 career games for The Bullets, Ashkin is one of the top 5 all-time penalty getters in Bullets history.    

 

 

 

 

 

With a full roster and an urgency in their attack, The Bullets can dominate a team. This was proven tonight after a 5-2 thrashing of the Dufferin Steelers.  

 

The last thing The Bullets wanted was to start the season 0-3, and if they were feeling any pressure to win, they sure didn't show it tonight. From the get-go, it was a total dominant effort by The Bullets.

 

Outshooting the Steelers by ten after one, but still in a deadlocked score, The Bullets knew that the middle frame would be vital to the result of the game. A quick goal does tons for confidence, but allowing a soft goal early could deflate the team.  

 

Only a minute and a half into the second, a couple of newcomers (along with a Bullets veteran) teamed up to put The Bullets in the lead. Matt Ockrant potted his first goal as a Bullet on a nice rebound from a Dave Preston shot, with fellow rookie Bruce Mackenzie also recording his first ever point on the goal.    

 

The lead would be very short-lived, as the Steelers tied the game only seven seconds later.

 

It was at this point that The Bullets knew they would have to push extra hard and not allow the Steelers to remain in the game. Thankfully they did not disappoint! The Bullets scored three more second period goals (Mike Adelson, Dave Preston, Ben Ashkin) and had a very comfortable 4-1 lead after two periods.

 

With only fifteen minutes of game time separating The Bullets from their first victory of the 2008 season, the key to holding on would be strong defensive play. Although allowing a goal with thirty seconds remaining in the game, The Bullets were next to flawless in the third, only allowing two shots while managing another seven. The final shots were 31-11 in favour of Bullets. Ashkin also recorded his second goal of the game during the period, bringing his total to four goals scored in three games played.

 

Adelson (1g,1a), Ashkin (2g,1a), Ockrant (1g,1a), Preston (1g,1a) and defenseman Ari Greenberg (2a) all had multi-point games.

 

Goaltender Benji Lightstone's extremely active stick paid off beautifully, as he poked away countless scoring opportunities. He stopped nine out of eleven shots in the victory.

 

The Bullets will look to build on this big victory next week. We hope to see you there!