BELLEVILLE, ON - For the second straight season, the Brampton Battalion defeated the Bulls on New Year's Day at the Yardmen as Matt MacLeod scored a pair of goals while Marcus McIvor chipped in with two helpers enroute to the 4-2 Brampton win.

The Bulls and Battalion are both known for their textbook approach to the game, with each squad playing a simple and effective style. One team was executing at a high rate in the first few minutes of the game.

The early going wasn't pretty for the hometown Bulls who seemed to have greasy sticks in the opening half of the first. The turnovers were mounting and the Battalion were showing more urgency in puck battles as John Chartrand was tested early and often.

The Troops got on the board first at 10:55 as a result of their hard work and constant possession game. Third line winger Matt MacLeod hammered away at a rebound on Chartrand, eventually knocking the puck through his legs after Marcus McIvor let one fly from the blueline.

The Bulls didn't find their legs until Brampton gave them a little help in the late moments of the period when both Brenden Miller and ex-Bull Brett Mackie took minor penalties. Up two men, the Bulls capitalized as coaches Jake Grimes and Jason Supryka tinkered with the powerplay and gave Simon Gronvaldt an opportunity on the man advantage. Gronvaldt made the most of his chance, taking a feed from Brendan Gaunce and blasting a shot right along the ice that snuck inside the far post on Keegan Wilson at 18:30. The Bulls have now received four goals from the blueline on the powerplay this season, two of which have come off the stick of Gronvaldt.

The two teams headed to the intermission with the Bulls wrestling back some of the momentum the Troops had early on.

After the Bulls killed off a minor early in the second, they seemed to gaining some ground in the contest and got an opportunity on a two-man advantage for two full minutes after Connor Jarvis and McIvor took penalties simultaneously at 8:05. The powerplay however, wasn't able to convert as solid penalty killing by lone forward Sam Carrick along with Zach Bell and Cameron Wind on the backend was able to stall the Bulls and keep them off the scoreboard.

Belleville had their opportunities, but when they did manage to cut through the stingy Brampton defence, Wilson stood tall to come up with saves when necessary.

The Troops reclaimed the lead at 17:21 of the second when recent returnee Ian Watters cut through the Bulls defence at high speed, using his skate to kick a rolling puck up to his stick before shelfing a backhander over the shoulder of Chartrand. Watters' 7th goal in 10 games made the score 2-1 Brampton.

The Bulls countered before the second frame expired. Austen Brassard's hot stick continued to smoke as a solid flurry with linemates Adam Payerl and Michael Curtis wound up in the back of the Brampton net. Brassard managed to pull the puck out of a scrum with the toe of his stick and quickly roof a shot over a sprawling Wilson for his 18th of the season. The goal extended Brassard's current point streak to seven games.

Back knotted at 2-2, Brampton's MacLeod picked up another goal for the third multi-goal game of his OHL career. MacLeod finished off a shift of constant pressure by the Battalion when he tipped in McIvor's low point shot to give Brampton a 3-2 lead just 1:23 into the third.

Mitchell Porowski added another goal at 12:16 of the third as their didn't appear to be much gas left in the Belleville tank. After Philip Lane undressed a Bulls defender, he immediately dished to the slot where Porowski was waiting uncovered to easily beat Chartrand on a one-timer.

The 4-2 final is the second straight New Year's Day game that the Troops have won at the Yardmen after last season's 2-1 shootout victory.

The Bulls were outshot 37-24 and outdone in the scoring chances department 24-12. John Chartrand was busy once again after facing 47 shots in Sudbury on Friday. 

"We were outworked today," said Bulls coach Jason Supryka after the loss. "All four of Brampton's lines are non-stop energy and we didn't look right from the opening puck drop." 

After a long road trip, Supryka acknowledged that fatigue may have played into Sunday's end result, but didn't want to make excuses. "The guys didn't get as much sleep in the past few days as they probably needed to simply due to travel, but this is a league where you have to find ways to perform in tough circumstances and we simply didn't today. Your feet need to drive your hands and the former wasn't fueling the latter this afternoon. We were doing a lot of standing still and allowing pucks to get to the middle of the ice where they became turnovers."

Matt MacLeod was named the game's first star with two goals in the game. The Niagara Falls native played on a line with Brett Mackie and Jamie Lewis as the three energy forwards created problems for Belleville all afternoon.

With an overtime loss by Sudbury in Peterborough, the Bulls maintain their standing in 5th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 21-14-1-0. They're record at the Yardmen Arena this season is now 13-5-0-0. The two teams will meet again on Thursday, January 12th at the Powerade Centre in Brampton.

The Bulls have another busy week ahead with the Oshawa Generals in town on Wednesday night at 7:05pm before taking on the Ottawa 67's in a weekend home-and-home set.

Tickets for Wednesday's game are still available. To purchase, contact the Bulls Box Office at 613-966-8338.