I
t took just nine days and three turns under the Ontario Hockey League lights for Caleb Malhotra to announce himself. If anyone in Brantford was unaware of the young prodigy’s potential before he arrived in the Southern Ontario hockey hotbed, he quickly dispensed with the mystery.
Malhotra’s first game in Brantford Bulldogs colours saw him collect his first point, just seven minutes into the tilt. His second, the centreman’s home debut at the club’s TD Civic Centre, saw him tally his first OHL goal, which wound up being his first game-winner, too. But it was in his third spin as a Bulldog, at home against Sudbury, that Malhotra put on display the full breadth of his prolific talent.
Perhaps appropriately for the unceasingly polite, understated prospect, it started quietly. A defensive-zone draw taken by the pivot sent the puck onto the stick of teammate Aiden O’Donnell, who charged up ice, set up Cooper Dennis for the game’s opening goal, and delivered Malhotra his first point of the night. A period later, with the Bulldogs on the power play, Malhotra found his way onto the board again, floating into the crease and deflecting home a bullet pass for his first man-advantage goal. The next period, he was back at the netfront wreaking havoc once more. A Bulldogs shot attempt left the puck hovering on the goal line — and there was Malhotra, diving, swinging his stick, and stuffing it into the back of the net.