Florian Xhekaj Records a Pair in 5-3 Loss
October 1, 2022 – Ontario Hockey League (OHL) – Hamilton Bulldogs News Release
HAMILTON, ONTARIO. Continuing their season opening 3-game road trip, the Hamilton
Bulldogs pulled into Peterborough coming off a tremendous opening night overtime victory in
Guelph to take on a Petes team the Bulldogs swept in the opening round of the 2022 playoffs.
Marco Costantini made his first start of the 2022-23 season and was under siege right from the
opening draw with the Petes outshooting the Bulldogs 22-6 in the first frame. Costantini was
able to hold the door shut until the 11:53 mark of the opening period when Connor Lockhart
tossed the puck from the middle of the blueline into a crowd in front of the Hamilton net to give
Peterborough a 1-0 lead. The lead was extended shortly after, at 12:17 as Jack Van Volsen
tried to set the puck to the netfront on a 2-on-1, though the pass was blocked the puck sat at
the side of the net for Van Volsen to toss into Bulldogs goal to make it 2-0 Petes. Before the
period was out James Guo let a wrist shot from the right point go through a crowd in front of the
Bulldogs goal again at 17:09 to give Peterborough a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes with Costantini
making 19 saves.
The second period got off to a rough start for the Bulldogs facing down a 5-on-3 where Samuel
Mayer fired home his first of the game off a slick feed from Tucker Robertson at 6:35 giving
Peterborough a 4-0 advantage. After Artem Grushnikov was the recipient of a head-check from
Chase Stillman and an ensuing fight with Avery Hayes saw the Petes with a brief 4-on-3 power-
play Samuel Mayer recorded his 2nd of the game at 7:45 pushing the lead to 5-0. The Bulldogs
found some offensive momentum at 14:08 with Noah Van Vliet handling a puck at the left point
and ripping a shot to the Peterborough slot where Cole Brown tipped the puck past Michael
Simpson for his 1st of the season, giving Hamilton life. Just over a minute later, Braeden
O’Keefe took the puck from the right-wing side of neutral ice and centered for Florian Xhekaj
who left his feet, diving through the slot to chip the puck over Simpson and into the net for his 1st
goal in the Ontario Hockey League getting the Bulldogs one closer, trailing 5-2 through 40
minutes.
The Bulldogs got one closer in the third period as Florian Xhekaj controlled the puck behind the
Peterborough goal, dealing a pass to the slot intended for Lawson Sherk whose ensuing shot
trickled back to Xhekaj. With Simpson off his post, Xhekaj hammered a shot off his back,
banking the puck into the net for his 2nd of the game and 2nd in the Ontario Hockey League
getting the Bulldogs within a pair at 5-3 at 11:58. That would be as close as the Bulldogs would
get, with a late major penalty assessed to Avery Hayes for boarding the Bulldogs killed off the
ensuing power-play and got Costantini to the bench late but couldn’t find anything further, falling
by a 5-3 final, despite 43 saves from their netminder.
The Hamilton Bulldogs return to action on Friday night, October 7th finishing up their 3-game
road trip in at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre visiting the Owen Sound Attack at
7:30pm. The Bulldogs will then return home to FirstOntario Centre to host the Oshawa Generals
at 7:00pm on Saturday, October 8th where the team will commemorate the 2022 OHL
Championship, raising all four banners.
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