Brantford goes up 1-0
Caleb Malhotra and Jake O’Brien potted a pair of pucks apiece and Ryerson Leenders made 34 saves to boost the Brantford Bulldogs to a spine-tingling 4-3 win over the visiting Barrie Colts tonight in Game 1 of the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference finals.
Brantford had a 3-1 lead past the midway point of the third period only to have Barrie score twice to make it 3-3. But O’Brien — a 2025 first round National Hockey League draft pick of the Seattle Kraken — clicked with 95 seconds left to send the hometown Brantford crowd into a frenzy.
Game 2 in the best of seven playoff series is slated for Friday night at 7:00 in Brantford.
The no. 1 seed Bulldogs are now a perfect 9-0 in this spring’s playoffs following sweeps of the Sudbury Wolves and North Bay Battalion.
