Hamilton held on to a share of first place in the North Division with a 3-2 win in Syracuse on Saturday.

Nigel Dawes 29th goal of the season stood up as the game-winner and extended his goal-scoring streak to six games, one shy of the AHL season high seven-game streak authored by Bulldogs teammate Dustin Boyd earlier this year. Dawes was playing in his second game with the Bulldogs after coming from the Atlanta organization earlier the week as part of the trade for Brent Sopel.

Brendon Nash and Kyle Lubertanz also scored for Hamilton, and Robert Mayer stopped 29 of 30 shots over the second and third periods to earn the win in relief of Curtis Sanford.

Saturday, February 26, 2011 – Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter

Hamilton 2 1 0 – 3
Syracuse 1 0 1 – 2

1st Period-

1, Hamilton, Nash 4   8:08.

2, Syracuse, Palmieri 14 (Green, Deschamps), 8:59.

3, Hamilton, Klubertanz 8 (Boyd, Fortier), 10:49 (PP).

Penalties-Macenauer Syr (tripping), 2:31; Petruic Ham (hooking), 5:18; Kennedy Syr (hooking), 9:58; Schultz Ham (fighting), 10:53; Kurtz Syr (fighting), 10:53; Dumont Ham (closing hand on puck), 11:30; Mitera Syr (hooking), 16:21.

2nd Period-

4, Hamilton, Dawes 29 (Engqvist, Henry), 4:25.

Penalties-Carle Ham (tripping), 1:25; Dumont Ham (hooking), 2:23; Bonneau Ham (unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:49; Pielmeier Syr (slashing), 17:49.

3rd Period-

5, Syracuse, Maroon 18 (Green, Bonino), 4:43 (PP).

Penalties-Carle Ham (tripping), 3:56; Avtsin Ham (holding), 8:36; Wyman Ham (tripping), 11:25; Laliberte Syr (hooking), 17:02; Guenin Syr (slashing), 17:35.

Shots on Goal-Hamilton 14-8-13-35. Syracuse 6-19-11-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Hamilton 1 / 5; Syracuse 1 / 7.
Goalies-Hamilton, Sanford 22-13-2 (6 shots-5 saves); Mayer 9-8-2 (30 shots-29 saves). Syracuse, Pielmeier 10-15-1 (35 shots-32 saves).
A-5,589
Referees-Jean Hebert (43).
Linesmen-Jeff Walker (28), Fraser McIntyre (94).

# Player GP G A PTS +/- PIM PP SHG SOG SH%
19 Nigel Dawes (total) 49 29 17 46 3 17 8 1 150 19.3
  CHI 47 27 17 44 2 17 8 1 145 18.6
  HAM 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 5 40.0
51 David Desharnais (X) 35 10 35 45 14 24 1 3 70 14.3
19 Ben Maxwell 47 11 29 40 -2 32 7 0 146 7.5
28 Aaron Palushaj 49 12 23 35 9 26 4 0 104 11.5
23 Max Pacioretty (X) 27 17 15 32 4 20 7 0 132 12.9
10 J.T. Wyman 58 13 15 28 6 30 2 0 112 11.6
4 Brendon Nash 53 4 21 25 14 41 3 0 57 7.0
15 Kyle Klubertanz 54 8 16 24 -3 36 2 0 82 9.8
72 Mathieu Carle 50 10 11 21 11 32 3 0 94 10.6
17 Dustin Boyd 30 15 4 19 1 16 6 1 101 14.9
32 Frederic St. Denis 57 4 15 19 11 22 2 0 78 5.1
20 Ryan Russell 54 9 9 18 13 48 0 0 100 9.0
22 Andreas Engqvist 51 8 10 18 9 14 2 0 92 8.7
12 Andrew Conboy 44 9 8 17 5 59 0 0 70 12.9
26 Alexander Avtsin 40 4 13 17 4 12 1 0 66 6.1
3 Brett Festerling (total) 48 3 13 16 -10 56 2 0 64 4.7
  SYR 32 3 9 12 -10 41 2 0 48 6.3
  HAM 16 0 4 4 0 15 0 0 16 0.0
40 Gabriel Dumont 52 5 10 15 -6 63 0 0 109 4.6
14 Olivier Fortier 46 7 7 14 -3 18 5 0 58 12.1
7 Yannick Weber (X) 15 8 4 12 -5 10 4 0 51 15.7
25 Ryan White (X) 33 3 9 12 -5 77 1 0 61 4.9
5 Alex Henry 58 0 11 11 6 77 0 0 31 0.0
61 Hunter Bishop 23 3 2 5 5 8 0 0 28 10.7
18 Dany Masse 14 1 2 3 -2 6 0 0 16 6.3
85 Neil Petruic 31 0 2 2 5 29 0 0 22 0.0
44 Jimmy Bonneau 57 1 0 1 -8 141 0 0 25 4.0
16 David Urquhart 18 0 1 1 0 8 0 0 9 0.0
1 Curtis Sanford 40 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0.0
45 Peter Delmas (X) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.0
35 Robert Mayer 19 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0.0
24 Ian Schultz 30 0 0 0 -6 26 0 0 32 0.0
  BENCH 58 5       12     5  
  TOTALS 58 169 277 441 78 910 50 4 1772 0.093
# Goalies GP Mins W L SL SO GA GAA SVS SV%
45 Peter Delmas (X) 2 125 1 0 1 0 4 1.92 56 0.933
1 Curtis Sanford 40 2273 22 13 2 5 73 1.93 963 0.930
35 Robert Mayer 19 1118 9 8 2 0 56 3.01 461 0.892
  TOTALS 58 3516 32 21 5 5 133 2.27 1480 0.918