Six-goal Kacper fires Bulldogs to first home win of season

TOP MAN: Kacper Andrukianiec receives his MVP award from match sponsors Jacobs Well after his stunning six-goal haul saw the Bulldogs to a 7-3 win over Nottingham Lions 2. 

KACPER ANDRUKIANIEC lit up The Pound with a six-goal bonanza that saw Bradford Bulldogs get back winning ways in NIHL North Two. 

The Bulldogs forward produced his memorable double hat-trick against bottom team Nottingham Lions 2, who were defeated 7-3 by Andy Brown’s team. 

The win was the Bulldogs’ third of the campaign and moved them up level on points with Sheffield Titans. It also made up for the tough time they endured at Ice Sheffield 24 hours earlier when unbeaten leaders Sutton Sting extended their winning streak at the start of the season to 13 games with a comfortable 10-2 win. 

“Saturday was a tough day at the office,” admitted Brown. “Defensively we were very poor and really should have been able to keep a respectable score. 

“On Sunday we started slow, Nottingham were by far the better team in the first period and we were lucky to be winning 3-2 going into the second. 

TOUGH DAY: The Bulldogs struggled once again against unbeaten leaders, Sutton Sting.

“The boys responded well though and stuck with the gameplan. We kept our cool as Nottingham seemed to lose their discipline and we capitalised and, in my opinion, we were the stronger team in the second and third. 

“The highlight was definitely Kacper’s six-goal contribution and hopefully that will fill him and the boys with confidence going into this weekend’s game at Altrincham.” 

After Andrukianiec broke the deadlock against Nottingham with a redirect in front of net from Ben Darbyshire with the Bulldogs on the power play in the seventh minute, the hosts then found themselves behind when the Lions hit back through Adam Clark and Jake Fisher. 

But the Bulldogs’ number 26 wrestled back the initiative for the home team with two goals in as many minutes before the first break, his hat-trick strike coming with 17.33 on the clock. 

Ben Fox doubled the lead when tipping in Joel Bark’s strike from the top of the left circle at 26.02, Andrukianiec taking his tally to four for the night when he forced the puck over the line in the 38th minute on the power play. 

His fourth goal of the game - another power play strike - was perhaps the pick of the bunch when he pinged it in off the underside of the bar to make it 6-2 at 46.15. 

Nottingham found a response through Charlie Davenport in the 53rd minute but, fittingly it was Andrukianiec who had the final say in the 58th minute, following up to fire home a rebound from his initial shot for a remarkable six-goal haul. 

The right-handed centre was on the board against Sutton the day before, but it was all in a losing cause, as the Bulldogs were well-beaten, even though they again contributed to their own downfall, like they did at the same venue the week before when losing to Sheffield. 

The Bulldogs were 3-0 down after the first 20 and the deficit had already increased by two more by the time they managed to eventually get on the board when Lucas Vince made it 5-1 at 23.52. 

Any hope of making further inroads into the Sutton lead were long gone by the end of the period, however, Morgan Glasby adding to his opening strike, as did Bailey Templar before further strikes from Cameron Akers and Calum Russell as the Sting romped to a 9-1 lead.

The Bulldogs improved in the third, even if it was too late to have any effect on the result, before William Stennett struck at 54.54 to bring up double figures for the hosts. 

Andrukianiec opened his scoring for the weekend in the 59th minute but it was scant consolation.