Scott Radley: Bulldogs one win from the sweep

The folks who coach hockey on the bench and devise game plans from the press box are generally pretty smart. They don't need any help from this space. But here's a piece of friendly advice anyway:

If you plan to beat the Hamilton Bulldogs, you might want to take zero penalties.

Not just a few. Not merely a handful. Zero.

The Bulldogs won Game 3 of their second-round playoff series against Mississauga on Tuesday evening by a score of 3-0 to take a 3-0 series lead. But there wasn't much of anything happening for the black and gold for the longest time. In fact, five minutes into the second period they were losing the shots-on-goal battle.

Then the Steelheads took their first penalty. Suddenly it was 1-0.

Then a few minutes later, Mississauga took its second penalty. It was 2-0.

Basically game over.

It's not that the Bulldogs can't perform at even strength. They can. You don't build a record of 42-4 this calendar year - and a 17-game winning streak right now - living on special teams alone. It's just that if you're going to hand them gifts, they're going to accept.

And boy, have they been getting presents in these playoffs.

So far this post-season, Hamilton has had 42 power-plays. That's six a game which is way ahead of any other team. And they've scored 17 times with the man advantage.

In the first round, Peterborough decided the path to victory was being chippy and gritty. It wasn't. Taking nine, seven, six and 11 penalties was a monumental miscalculation.

Mississauga has shown better discipline in the second round giving up just two, five and three power-plays. They killed both in the opener but then gave up two power play goals in the second - the margin of victory - and two in the third.

Trouble is, the Steelheads have collected just four goals in this series. When you're not scoring, even one or two power play goals against is crushing.

To be clear, this isn't an indictment of Mississauga. The Steelheads are exceptional at killing penalties. Third-best all year in the Ontario Hockey League.

But when you throw a power play unit onto the ice that includes Mason McTavish (third-overall NHL draft pick and a man among boys in these playoffs), Logan Morrison (a 100-point player in the regular season and four power play goals already in the post-season), Ryan Winterton (third-round NHL draft pick and better than a point-a-game player in the playoffs) and Nathan Staios (second in the league in power play assists), even a good PK is going to be stretched.

And here's the kicker.

Hamilton has been without Avery Hayes this series so far as he's served a three-game suspension. He was the team's leading scorer against Mississauga in the regular season. Plus, he's a key part of that power play. He's eligible to return for Game 4 when Hamilton has a chance to sweep the Steelheads on Friday evening in Mississauga.

To win this series, recently crowned OHL coach of the year - James Richmond won despite his team finishing 25 points behind Jay McKee's Bulldogs - is going to have to prompt his team to hand Hamilton as many losses in the next week as they've had in the past four-and-a-half months.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but with all this going on you should absolutely be cheering for Kingston to beat North Bay in the other Eastern Conference series if you're a Bulldogs fan.

The Battalion take almost no penalties (just over two a game) and kill almost all of the ones they do take (92.9 per cent). The Frontenacs, on the other hand, take more (four a game) and they are second-worst among playoff teams in penalty killing with an abysmal 63.3 success rate.

Against Hamilton, that would be death.

The one concern coming out of this game is another injury. Jan Mysak didn't dress on Tuesday after crashing hard into the boards and in Game 2. In this one, Nathan Staios left the game after an ugly hit from behind into the boards and didn't return.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com