The Bulldogs lost their third playoff game 4-3 to the Nanaimo Clippers on Friday night, leaving them 0-3 against the division leaders.
“It’s certainly tough battles out there in playoff hockey,” Bulldogs head coach Kevin Willison told 93.3 The Peak’s Evan Hammond after the game. With 48 shots to the Clippers’ 34, Willison said that the Bulldogs’ shots just weren’t finding the back of the net tonight.
The Clippers got their first goal less than four minutes into the first period thanks to Nicolas Carrier with an assist from Brett Roulston.
Nanaimo got their second goal on a power play just 17 seconds into a rough second period that saw nine penalties for the ‘Dogs and six for the Clippers.
“It was ugly, absolutely… it’s tough to get any tempo and pace in those kind of games,” Willison said. “It’s going to be chippy and there’s really no flow. Lots of whistles, lots of faceoffs, a lot of after the whistle sort of stuff.”
The second period also saw the Bulldogs even out the score to 2-2, with the goal first three minutes in by Chris Schutz with an assist from Mitch Makin and the second at 13:14 by Eric Therrien with assists from Tyler Povelofskie and Drew Weich.
The Clippers pulled ahead to 3-2 with a power play goal at 2:19 by Brett Roulston from Cole Maier.
The Bulldogs evened the score out again to 3-3 with a power play goal by Drew Blackmun from Brett Stewart and Josh Adkins just over two minutes into the third period.
“I thought the guys battled hard and they didn’t quit, they made a couple bad plays out there,” Willison said.
The Bulldogs held the score even till three minutes left in the game when Jacob Jackson got an assist from Austin Dick to make it 4-3 for the Clippers win.
“We gotta forget about this one and get out opportunity to play again tomorrow night. We’re going to have to find a way to score more goals than them and just find a way.”
The Bulldogs take on the Clippers in what could be the ‘Dogs last game of the season on Saturday, March 7 at 7 p.m. at the AV Multiplex. If they win, they’ll play game four of the series in Nanaimo at the Frank Crane Arena on Monday, March 9 at 7 p.m. Listen to 93.3 the Peak for a pre-game show, the play-by-play and post-game analysis.
– with files from Evan Hammond at 93.3 The Peak
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