Montreal, PQ - In a battle of the Western Conference versus the Eastern Conference of the AHL the high flying Hamilton Bulldogs (36-14-3-5) put away the Adirondack Phantoms (26-27-2-2) by the score of 5-0 in front of 15,529 rowdy and raucous fans at the Bell Center (CentreBell) in Montreal.

Tom Pyatt and Brock Trotter each netted 2 goals while Cedrick Desjardins posted his 6th shutout of the season. Adirondack only managed 16 shots for the game (Hamilton - 20) as the stingy Bulldog defense paved the way for their first ever win in Montreal.

“That was a big challenge for us. We were playing that game for a while and we didn’t want to give any chance or any hope to the other team because we were 0 and 5 here in Montreal. So it’s been two or three years and we couldn’t get a win, so tonight we just gave everything so there’d be no coming back. Myself and all of the team are just proud of this game,” stated Desjardins.

It looked as if Adirondack would be the first to light the lamp in this contest as Jon Matsumoto grabbed the puck at 16:35 in the Hamilton zone and blazed a shot from the slot that smashed off the post and ricocheted back towards the circle. The Baby Habs certainly caught a break as shoddy defense allowed this opportunity.

Hamilton capitalized on this break as they found the back of the net less than two minutes later to grab the 1-0 lead. Pyatt knocked in his 12th of the season on a gorgeous wrap-around that beat the stick side of Johan Backlund. Give helpers to Trotter and David Desharnais.

Both teams traded a couple of penalties in this period, the most notable was the four minute high sticking penalty called against Trotter that his Dogs were able to fight off.

The pace of the contest through the first was pretty even with shots on net favoring Adirondack 8-6.

Only 46 seconds into the second frame the Adirondack defense broke down as Desharnais was left all alone in front of Backlund. Instead of taking the point blank shot he quickly dished it to his left to Trotter who was charging the net like a freight train and pounded in his team leading 27th of the season to help his team increase their lead to 2-0. Also give an assist to Ryan Russell.

“Russell made a good pass to Deshy down in front and he found me kind of sneaking in back door. It was a good play and we were hard on the forecheck,” added Trotter.

The Bulldogs almost went up by three when Chad Anderson peppered a shot from the right circle that grazed off Backlund’s glove and off the top of the crossbar with 9 minutes remaining.

Hamilton eventually grabbed that 3-0 lead when Trotter once again found the back of the net. With just 46.3 seconds remaining he took advantage of a poor clearing attempt by Rob Bellamy by snatching the puck and tucking it through the five hole from the bottom of the left circle. This one came unassisted, and yes it was his 28th of the season.

“We were just kind of hard on the forecheck and I kind of forced the turnover. The guy gave up the puck and I just kind of put it on net. It saw a little bit of a hole and squeaked through,” described Trotter.

Shots would finish up on the period at 9-4 in favor of the Dogs. Give credit to their defense for killing off a 5-on-3 disadvantage for over a minute deep in the frame.

At 9:59 of the final period with the Bulldogs down a man (Mike Glumac - tripping), Grant Stevenson and Pyatt skated up ice on a 2-on-1 opportunity. Approaching the slot Stevenson dished the one-timing pass onto Pyatt’s stick who quickly buried it past the stick side of Backlund to put his team up 4-0. This was his 5th of the year. An assist was later given to Anderson.

This would not be it however as Pyatt would notch another one with just 4:51 remaining. This would be a power play goal (David Laliberte - holding) as he blasted a slap shot from the top of the right circle to beat Backlund’s low glove side. This goal was assisted by Andre Benoit and PK Subban and made the final score 5-0.

“It’s very inspiring playing in a place like Montreal with a lot of history. For me when I played in Quebec I enjoyed being here. I think today was a big challenge for me, I had a little bit of butterflies before the game,” added Desjardins.

Trotter felt a lot of the same excitement as his net minder. “It was awesome, it was great that all of these people came out here. I know we’re not the Habs but obviously it’s awesome that we got all these people to come watch us, we’re thankful for that.”

The Western Conference top Dogs now have 80 points on the season which is four better than the Chicago Wolves. They now host the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday while Adirondack will play host to the Syracuse Crunch on the same night.

Notes - This is the second home game for Hamilton at the Bell Center, they hosted the Binghamton Senators back in November…..Every time PK Subban was shown on the scoreboard the fans erupted with cheers (even during the anthem)…..Youppi and the Bulldogs mascot, Bruiser, were on hand to get the fans fired up.

AHL Cool Fact! - In February, 2000 Hartford Wolf*Pack goaltender JF Labbe scored an empty net goal against the Quebec Citadelles. To make it more special his dad was in the audience to watch!