The Bradford Rattlers wore their green ‘Home’ jerseys for Game 3 of the GMHL North Division semifinals, Saturday night at the BWG Leisure Centre – but they might as well have been wearing red.
The very sight of the Rattlers on the ice was like a red flag to the Bradford Bulls.
If the Rattlers dominated game 2, this time the roles were reversed: it was the Bulls who demonstrated hard skating, precision passing, and laser-focused determination to avoid elimination in the Best of Five series.
The Bulls charged out of the gate, and only 3:53 into the first frame, notched their first marker – a goal by #16 Michael Haddad from Nicolai Harries (#22).
Less than 3 minutes later, the Bulls took a 2-0 lead, on a goal by Harries from Nathan Balkwill (#20), capitalizing on a Rattlers penalty.
The Rattlers worked hard to regain control, but it was the Bulls who kept the puck out of their own end, and harried Rattlers goalie Andrei Berezinsky.
It wasn’t until 6:34 was left in the period that the Rattlers made it onto the scoreboard – when Martin Nagy (#10) finally got past Bulls’ goalie Travis Smith (#30), on an assist from Vaclav Boguaj (#25).
The score was 2-1 – but only for a few minutes. With 3:09 left on the clock, the Bulls scored their third goal. Liam Silva (#8) deked out goalie Berezinsky, with assists to Lucas Vidinha (#13) and Balkwill.
The Bulls took their 3-1 lead into the second period, where there was more furious skating by both teams, end-to-end action, and huge saves by both goalies. Rattlers were on the attack, but goalie Travis Smith seemed unbeatable until 11 minutes into the frame, when the Rattlers were able to score on the power play – a goal by Maxim Tssegelnik (#21) from Florian Schaller (#18) and Stepan Levitskiy (#6).
But that was it for the scoring. It became a goalies’ battle, with both netminders blocking shot after shot, to close out the period with the Bulls still ahead, 3-2.
The Bulls held onto their slim lead in a scoreless third period that saw every Rattler attack blocked by goalie Smith, almost every rush blocked by Bulls’ defense, and the Bulls still aggressively skating and taking shots on goalie Berezinsky.
In the final two minutes of play, the Rattlers pulled their goalie– but even with the extra man attacker, they were unable to score, and the game ended in a 3-2 Bulls win.
There were plenty of penalties on both sides, but the Bulls proved that they can never be counted out: they have the heart, the determination, and the goaltending to beat the Rattlers.
Bulls took all three Stars of the Game - #1 to goalie Travis Smith, who stopped all but two of 28 shots on net; #2 to Nicholai Harries for racking up a goal and an assist; Star #3 to Nathan Balkwill, for two assists.
The Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League North Division semi-final Game 4 between the Bulls and Rattlers takes place on Sunday night, 7:30 p.m. at the BWG Leisure Centre. Game 5 is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Leisure Centre on Monday, March 21.
Winner of the best of five series will go on to face Temiskaming, the number one seed, in the North Division Final.
