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The Hamilton Bulldogs continue to find ways to
get it done, winning a pair of 1-goal games in Manitoba to steal away home ice
advantage in the North Division Finals.  We’ll break down the numbers, as
well as shift our focus away from the CHL playoffs to Russia and the World
Championships, and track the Habs playing out there.  Finally, we’ll
examine how the Sergei Kostitsyn issue appears to have been blown way out of
proportion, in the Recap.

The Dog
Pound

The Bulldogs stormed into Manitoba and shocked
the home crowd, taking both games in as many days.

Scores:

Game-by-game, series games 1-2.

May 5 1 2 3 Tot PP SOG
Hamilton 0 1 1 2
1/6		 24
Manitoba 0 0 1 1 0/6 25

Attendance:  6,965
3 Stars:  1) Price – HAM  2) MacIntyre – MTB  3) Grabovski –
HAM

May 6 1 2 3 Tot PP SOG
Hamilton 1 0 2 3 0/3 23
Manitoba 1 0 1 2 1/6 43

Attendance:  6,038
3 Stars:  1) Price – HAM  2) Raymond – MTB  3) Tremblay – MTB

Weekly
Stats:

Overall, it was a quiet week on the scoresheet,
as no player had more than 2 points after the first 2 games.

SKATERS
# Player GP G A +/- SH PIMS
2 Ryan O’Byrne 3 0 0 E 1 2
4 Dan Jancevski 3 0 0 +1 1 0
7 Eric Manlow 3 0 1 +1 2 2
10 Cory Urquhart 3 1 0 +1 4 0
16 Andre Benoit 3 1 0 -1 3 0
17 Kyle Chipchura 3 0 0 E 2 4
19 Duncan Milroy 3 0 1 E 2 0
20 Zack Stortini 3 0 0 +1 0 2
21 Jonathan Ferland 3 0 0 +1 7 2
22 Matt D’Agostini 3 1 0 +1 2 2
24 Francis Lemieux 3 0 1 E 1 0
26 Maxim Lapierre 3 1 0 -1 6 2
27 Danny Groulx 3 0 2 +1 3 2
31 Mikhail Grabovski 3 0 2 +1 2 0
32 Ajay Baines 3 1 0 +1 4 2
34 Mathieu Biron 3 0 0 +1 7 0
55 Andrew Archer 3 0 0 +2 0 4
84 Corey Locke 3 0 1 E 3 2

GOALIES
# Player MINS SF SVS GA
29 Carey Price 120 68 65 3

Playoff Leaders: 

Goals:  Locke (5)
Assists:  Milroy (6)
Points:  Locke (9)
+/-:  O’Byrne (+5)
PIMS:  Stortini (20)

Schedule:

May 8th: 
Manitoba vs Hamilton
May 12th: 
Manitoba vs Hamilton
May 13th: 
Manitoba vs Hamilton

At the
Worlds

Our new segment replacing our weekly look at
the CHL prospects in the playoffs (there aren’t any more), we’ll now keep tabs
on how the Habs’ prospects are faring at the Worlds in Moscow.

Goalies:

David Aebischer – Switzerland – 0-1 record, 6.00 GAA, .793 SV%
Jaroslav Halak – Slovakia – 1-1 record, 2.52 GAA, .904 SV%, 1 shutout

Defence:

Alexei Emelin – Russia – 6 GP, 0 G, 1 A, 1 PT, 0 PIMS, +2, 1 SOG
Andrei Markov – Russia – 6 GP, 2 G, 5 A, 7 PTS, 0 PIMS, +4, 13 SOG
Mark Streit – Switzerland – 6 GP, 1 G, 3 A, 4 PTS, 6 PIMS, -2, 7 SOG (tied
for team lead in points)

Forward:

Tomas Plekanec – Czech Republic – 6 GP, 04 G, 4 A, 8 PTS, 2 PIMS, +3, 14
SOG (team leader in points)

Final
Thought

Well, it all looked like it was going to be a
wonderful family reunion of sorts, as both Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn were
reunited after the latter sign a tryout contract with the Bulldogs.  But
the reunion will have to wait, as Andrei’s injury is more serious than
originally assumed (out for Round 2 at the minimum), while the younger one has
left the team, and no one’s saying why.  Thing is though, does anything
need to be?  People are already accusing Sergei of having attitude issues
and calling him a bad influence, but in reality, he had every right to go home
when you think about it, at least, given what little we know about the
situation.  He signed an ATO (Amateur Tryout Contract), the key word being
tryout.  The situation could be, and seems to be, as simple as he tried out
to see if he could fit into the current lineup, and wasn’t successful.  In
this instance, he has every right to go home, plain and simple, no questions
asked.  You can’t expect a player to stay with a team that he’s not going
to play for.  If the situation that simple?  I’ll be honest, I don’t
know, but the only ones who do are within the Bulldogs organization, and they’re
keeping quiet for now.  So before everyone starts chastising the kid, why
not give him the benefit of the doubt, until more is released about what’s going
on.  I know everyone’s overzealous given the lack of a Habs playoff run,
but even in the face of that, this is not that big a story.