s first pitch of the fourth deep into the pavilion seats in

HAMILTON, Ont. Dennis Smith Jr. Authentic Jersey . -- The Hamilton Bulldogs stressed the need for a strong start before Saturdays game, but the reality on the ice didnt go as planned. Instead, the Utica Comets scored twice in the first period and the Bulldogs never dug out of the early hole. Benn Ferriero scored twice and Joe Cannata made 32 saves as the Comets defeated the Bulldogs 3-1 in the American Hockey League on Saturday. "Our first point before the game was that we needed a good start," said Hamilton head coach Sylvain Lefebvre. "They scored two goals early in the first and then we found ourselves battling through adversity and trying to play catch-up. "We just didnt have it tonight. All-in-all, we just werent sharp and we couldnt make things work." Alexandre Grenier also scored for the Comets (12-20-5), who snapped a six-game losing streak with the victory. Comets leading scorer Pascal Pelletier had three assists to increase his point total to 11 in his past eight games. Maxime Macenauer scored the lone goal for the Bulldogs (19-15-4), while Dustin Tokarski stopped 31 shots. Sven Andrighetto had a chance to score for Hamilton three minutes into the game, but the Bulldogs winger could not get his stick on the cross-ice pass from linemate Martin St. Pierre. The Bulldogs had possibly their best scoring chance of the first period when Justin Courtnall sprung a short-handed rush with Greg Pateryn in the box for tripping. The wingers initial shot was stopped by Cannata, with Patrick Holland unsuccessfully jamming at the loose rebound. Utica opened the scoring with what looked like a harmless shot from Ferriero at 11:21. After waiting for a thick screen to develop in front of Tokarski, Peter Andersson released a slow, rising wrist shot that tipped off both Pelletier and Ferriero before beating the goaltender, who didnt see the puck until the last moment. The Comets doubled their advantage through an almost identical move on the power play at 13:42 when Henrik Tommernes fired a high slap shot that deflected off Grenier in front, and beat the goaltender over the blocking glove at the far post. The Bulldogs cut into their deficit early in the second period, when Macenauer jumped out of the penalty box and victimized the Comets power-play unit with his fresh legs. The centre latched onto a loose puck in the Utica zone and sped past the Comets defenders before squeezing a low shot through Cannata for a short-handed goal at 2:07. "When I got the puck, my first thought was to try to get to the net on a breakaway," said Macenauer. "I realized that the defenceman was very close, and I thought that the five hole was open, so I went for that." Hamilton began to press for an equalizer midway through the second, and Mike Blunden saw a wrist shot clang off the near post with the Bulldogs on the power play with 11 and a half minutes to play in the period. Despite their pressure, the Bulldogs could not find a second goal before the periods end. Hamilton got off to a sluggish start in the third, and Tokarski had to be alert to keep his team within a goal. A scramble with nine and a half minutes to play nearly yielded the equalizer on a power play, but Hamilton came up short. The Bulldogs finished 0-5 with the man advantage. Lefebvre lamented his teams inability to sustain pressure after its power plays. "We had one good power play, and I hoped that it might give us some momentum, but we couldnt follow up with good shifts after that," he said. "We had three or four good scoring chances on that one, and a few flurries here and there, but nothing convincing." Ferriero put the game beyond doubt with 35 seconds to play, putting his second goal of the game into the empty net. Macenauer argued that he and his teammates will need to get back to basics if they want to return to the win column. "We have to keep things simple and get back to doing what we were doing when we were winning," he said. "Our forecheck is a strength of our team, and we have some fast guys here, so we need to simplify things and use those parts of our game." Dennis Smith Jr. White Jersey .com) - James van Riemsdyk had two goals with one assist to help the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night. Dennis Smith Jr. Blue Jersey .com) - The Calgary Flames are spoilers once again. http://www.mavericksteamofficial.com/dennis-smith-jr-mavericks-jersey/ .Heres Ralph the Dog with the crew here at TSN jumping into the James Duthie TradeCentre selfie: Happy to drop by! RT @TSN_Sports: @tsnjamesduthie: Take this Ellen. LOS ANGELES -- Everything went right for Madison Bumgarner. He pitched well, the Giants provided him more than enough offence and they played strong defence behind him. The bullpen pitched in, too. Bumgarner struck out 10 while working into the seventh inning and San Francisco beat Los Angeles 7-2 Saturday as Yasiel Puig returned to the starting lineup for the Dodgers. The Giants got home runs from Michael Morse, Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey. "Weve always had a good defensive team, and were starting to swing the bats now," Bumgarner said. "So were a pretty well-rounded team. Today the bullpen came in and did a great job, and the offence was unbelievable again. Its nice to have that kind of support. It makes it easier to go after guys and challenge them." Puig returned to the Dodgers starting lineup, playing right field and batting leadoff a day after he was benched by manager Don Mattingly for arriving late for stretching and batting practice before Fridays home opener. Puig went 1 for 4 and was picked off first in the third inning for the final out with cleanup-hitter Adrian Gonzalez at the plate. Bumgarner (1-0) was charged with two runs and eight hits over 6 1-3 innings in his second outing. "I was throwing a little bit of everything," the left-hander said. "It seemed like they had a lot of baserunners today, but I felt like I made good pitches all day. The command was there and my stuff was pretty good." Bumgarner has a career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.65, which is better than that of All-Star teammates Tim Lincecum (2.77) and Matt Cain (2.48). Last season, he came within one strikeout of becoming only the second Giants lefty since Ray Sadecki in 1968 to finish a season with 200 or more. "You dont want to give guys free passes at any time. You have to make them earn it of you can," Bumgarner said. "But at the same time, you dont want to just give in and just throw a meatball up there. Youve got to make pitches and work on command and get ahead of guys." Bumgarner is 4-1 with a 1.53 ERA in his last five starts at Chavez Ravine. "He was commanding both sides of the plate and locating," Gonzalez said. "Hes just like anybody else. Dennis Smith Jr. Womens Jersey. If he can command down and away, down and in, up and away and up and in, and crisscross the strike zone, it makes it tough." Puig came up in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out after Giants skipper Bruce Bochy replaced Bumgarner with Santiago Casilla. Puigs flyball to right field was too shallow to score Scott Van Slyke, but pinch-hitter Andre Ethier followed with an RBI single. A.J. Ellis tried to score behind Van Slyke and was thrown out by Hunter Pence for the third out. Mattingly came out to discuss the call with umpire Joe West and used his one challenge for a video replay ruling, which upheld the original call. "I had to make a pretty good throw and Buster had to make a great tag," Pence said. Paul Maholm (0-1) gave up five runs and seven hits through 4 1-3 innings in his first start for the Dodgers. "Maholms got a lot of different pitches that he throws it in a lot of different ways, and he located really well. So its always tough," Pence said. "You just battle, make him get the ball over the plate and be aggressive." Morse, playing for his fourth team in a span of three seasons, gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead when he drove Maholms first pitch of the fourth deep into the pavilion seats in left-centre for his first homer with the Giants. Sandoval, the Giants slimmed-down third baseman and 2012 World Series MVP, parked Maholms 80th and final pitch over the left field fence in the fifth for with two on for his first home run of 2014. Posey then greeted rookie Jose Dominguez with a drive into the lower seats in the left field corner. NOTES: Maholm had allowed only three homers in 62 innings during his 10 previous career starts against the Giants, all of them solo shots. ... Maholms official Dodgers debut was March 23 against the Diamondbacks in Australia, when he pitched in relief for only second time in 244 big league appearances to that point. ... Angel Pagan worked out an eight-pitch walk to open the game and was erased on a double-play grounder by Pence, who was robbed of a hit up the middle by shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Maholm has induced a major league-high 185 ground-ball DPs since the start of the 2006 season. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '