Twice, this season, the Belleville Bulls have managed to string together six-game winning streaks. Thursday night in Niagara they were able to put another six-game streak together, only this wasn’t the type of streak they were hoping to reach. Going in to Thursday night’s action losers of five straight games, Belleville’s offense failed to produce in a 6-0 loss to the IceDogs.
Belleville’s record dropped to below .500 at 22-23-1-0 as they try to end their slide Saturday night on home ice when they play host to the Sarnia Sting.
Russian winger, Daniil Zharkov, missed out on Thursday’s action due to flu-like symptoms and is still questionable for Saturday’s contest. John Chartrand made his return in net Thursday night, giving up six goals on 34 shots. Sarnia will propose an equally difficult challenge, with midseason acquisition J.P. Anderson in net, and Nail Yakupov making his return after a knee injury in the Gold Medal game of the World Juniors put him out of action for a couple weeks.
“They’re a high-powered offense,” said Bulls’ Head Coach and General Manager, George Burnett, about Saturday’s opponents. “They will score a lot of goals if you give them extra powerplay time and opportunities through transition and turnovers. There’s a lot of similarities between them and Niagara. Right now we have to worry more about our own team and things that are important to our success and worry a little less about our opposition and try and tighten our game up.
At this point Belleville is wishing they were able to turn back the clock and try and find a way to reach the levels of success they had before the clock struck midnight to ring in the new year.
December 3rd Belleville was 18-9-0-0 and fighting for top spot in the Eastern Conference. Since then, Belleville is 3-14-1-0 and two points out of the playoffs. Another trend they hope to get back to is the play of some of their top guns. After a hot month of November where he was recognized as an Ontario Hockey League player of the week, Brendan Gaunce has been struggling to find the score sheet with the same level of consistency he once had.
Zharkov has been in the same boat after starting the season off with 15 goals in his first 17 games. In 13 games after that, Zharkov has not found the back of the net. In either players case, the lack of offense has not been a result of a lack of chances. In recent games Zharkov and Gaunce have both been presented with chances to break their slumps with skill and a way to create opportunities, but haven’t been able to get over the hump.
“They need to just keep it simple, up their work habits and go to the tough areas of the ice,” said Burnett when asked what his two stars need to do in order to break out of their own slumps and help lead the team back to victory.
In their first meeting of the season in Sarnia, Belleville picked up a 4-3 shootout win. Sarnia is coming off a 5-2 loss Friday to the Ottawa 67′s. Yakupov, the highly ranked Russian forward going in to this summer’s National Hockey League draft, picked up a goal in his first game back.
The Sting are also on a slide of their own having lost three straight and have a record of 23-19-1-4, fourth in the Western Conference. Belleville is two points behind the Oshawa Generals for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. A win Saturday becomes even more crucial for the Bulls as the Generals are also in action and can extend their lead over the Bulls in the playoff picture with a victory of their own.
Game time Saturday is 7:05 at the Yardmen Arena and can be heard on AM800 CJBQ and TV COGECO.
