Meadville succumbs to a short bench falling 4-1 to Blackhawk

The House of Chills was packed for the first Bulldog home action in two weeks. Meadville took on the Blackhawk Cougars on Monday night with a depleted roster. The Bulldogs were missing Ryan Yunik to suspension, Patrick Mahoney and Jake Walls to injury and Ethan Gredler to illness.

The short-benched Bulldogs had their exhausted numbers catch up to them, as they fell 4-1 to Blackhawk.

"You can't make excuses for [a short bench]. It's next man up," head coach Kyle Waite said. "Injuries and suspensions are things you've got to try and overcome. I'm not going to sit here and make an excuse."

The game started off in Meadville's favor with a power play in the first minutes of action.

The extra man for the Bulldogs amounted to nothing, but just over two minutes later the Bulldogs struck first.

Nick Engels found the puck on the goal line after a battle with the Cougar defender. Engels flung a backhand shot at the net and from the strangle angle, the puck found its way over the right shoulder of Blackhawk goalie Matt Hofer.

The rest of the period was a quick affair, as the refs put away their whistles.

The clock ticked over the seven minute mark, when Cougars' defenseman Bryce Leiper passed the puck up the neutral zone and onto Grant Shroads' stick. Shroads took the puck into the Meadville zone and sniped it passed Bulldogs' goalie Max Benninger.

The second continued the fast pace of the first with a Blackhawk goal only three minutes in.

A shot came from the top of the Bulldog's zone and at first Benninger found it. The puck was free and both teams were scrambling for the puck. The puck was eventually found by Shroads, who got it to Finn Conlon who put the puck past Benninger, who had no chance on the play.

Midway through the second, Meadville was back on the man advantage.

On this power play, the Bulldogs let up a shorthanded chance, but Benninger came up huge on to keep the deficit to only one.

Meadville did not come up with a power play goal, but momentum was behind them.

The Bulldogs had two great chances back-to-back.

The first chance came on shot from the wing by Luke Ferry, that Hofer bobbled with the glove.

The second, came on a two-on-one for Meadville. Ferry and Engels came in with speed and with the pass not there, Ferry ripped a shot, but Hofer was up to the task.

After these chances, the Bulldogs found themselves shorthanded for the only time in the game.

On the penalty kill, Blackhawk's Daniel Ostrom put home a backhand goal from in front to make the game 3-1 for the visitors.

Till this point, the Bulldogs had been evenly matched with the Cougars. The 3-1 goal tilted the ice in favor of Blackhawk.

"I thought the effort was good for about a period and a half. I wasn't overly pleased with the rest of the effort," Waite said. "I don't know what shifted. Maybe they got tired, we had a short bench. We only had eight forwards."

Meadville's shortened bench caught up to the team in the third.

Blackhawk controlled play for almost the entire period.

Benninger stood strong in net for Meadville, but Leiper fired a quick snapshot past him to add the final Cougar goal of the night.

Meadville has scored only one goal in four of its last five games.

"You have four of your top six forwards out, we have trouble scoring as it is," Waite said. "You take your top scorer out, your second or third leading scorer out, Patrick is a point-per-game kid. You lose a lot of points with four kids out. It's next man up, someone has to step up. Someone has to create a goal."

Meadville drops to 3-5-2 in PHIL standings and loses its third straight game for the first time this season.

The Bulldogs will face Blackhawk again Jan. 8 and Waite knows it will be an important matchup late in the year.

"Blackhawk is a team we are going to be battling with down the stretch to make the playoffs," Waite said.

The Bulldogs next test is against undefeated Canon-McMillan. Waite hopes with the holiday rest and gaining players back, his Bulldogs will put up a better effort against another good team.

"Hopefully he can get some guys back. Yunik and Gredler should be back. We'll get some kids back, we'll give them some rest for Thanksgiving," Waite said. "We'll go down to Canon-McMillian and hopefully have a better effort."

The Bulldogs travel to Canon-McMillian Dec. 2, with puck drop at 8:20 p.m.