The Brantford Bulldogs scored a knockout in Round 1 of its Rivalry Week Series against the Brampton Steelheads.
Playing on the road on Friday, the Bulldogs (10-2-0-1) battered Brampton (1-8-1-1) 8-2. Game 2 goes Saturday at the TD Civic Centre at 7 p.m.
In a game featuring the Eastern Conference’s best team against its bottom team, Brantford’s Kaden McGregor and Jason Musa put on a show with the former scoring four goals and the latter notching four assists.
Abe Barnett (1G, 1A), Camden McCuaig (2A) and David Buchman (2A) got a pair of points each while Sam Roberts, Cullen McCrate and Owen DeGraff rounded out the scoring.
George Komadoski, Jeremy Freeman, Xavier Lieb, Adam Nemec, Jack Good, Matthew Hlacar and Philip Govedaris got an assist each.
Goaltender Chase Petrova made 31 saves to earn the win.
Geno Carcone and MacGregor Richmond scored for Brampton. Oskari Ahmajabi allowed six goals in net for the Steelheads with Neilan Johnson giving up the other two.
Jason Musa left Friday’s game after taking a big hit. His status for Saturday was unknown.
Aiden Kelly, Brayden Lappalainen and Jet Kwajah were all out of the lineup with illness. They are questionable for Saturday’s game.
Nathan Hauad remains week to week with an upper-body injury.
DOG BITES . . . Brantford made another trade on Friday, sending Jack Torr to the Erie Otters for second-round (North Bay, 2028) and fourth-round (Erie, 2030) OHL Priority Selections. Torr, a forward, had four goals and three assists in seven games this season . . . The Bulldogs moved up one spot in the weekly OHL Power Rankings, now sitting fifth despite being tied with Sault Ste. Marie for the league’s best record . . . For the second time this season, Vilmer Salen-Forsberg was named the OHL’s goalie of the week. In two games, he was 2-0 with a 1.00 goals against average, .971 save percentage and one shutout . . . The Canadian Hockey League announced this week that the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts will host the 2028 Memorial Cup. The 2027 Memorial Cup is being hosted by the Guelph Storm.