Staff Report
BRANT NEWS

The Brantford Blast are the team to beat early in the Allan Cup Hockey league season.

Brantford’s senior hockey club now sports a perfect 4-0 record and escaped as the victors in an early meeting with last year’s regular season champion Whitby Dunlops.

On Friday, the Blast travelled to Orillia for their first meeting with the Tundras this season. The theme of blowout victories for the Blast continued as Mike Ruberto, Patrick Easter and player-coach Mike Burgoyne all contributed four points to a 7-2 win.

Then, on Saturday, the Blast headed to Whitby to face the powerhouse Dunlops in a matchup of undefeated teams. The Blast put on an incredible show on the penalty kill to come out on top in a 5-4 victory.

Down 4-3 going into the third period, things looked dire for Brantford when Ruberto and Travis Lisabeth were sent to the penalty box six seconds apart.

A Dunlops player was already in the penalty box, but was due back on the ice 12 seconds after Lisabeth’s penalty. That gave Whitby a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:42.

But before the Dunlops player got out of the box, Jon Jankus banged home the tying goal with the Blast shorthanded.

Brantford then killed off the 5-on-3 and used the momentum to gain the winning goal with just more than eight minutes left in the game.

Whitby will look to avenge the loss this Friday when they visit the Brantford civic centre at 7:30 p.m.