The Halton Hills Jr B Bulldogs will open up defence of their back-to-back Eastern Conference titles with a first round matchup with the Kahnawake Hunters.

The two teams have never met in the playoffs and the Hunters have never won a playoff round in the brief history of the franchise.

The Dogs defeated the Hunters by a narrow 8-6 margin early in the season but were missing several pieces including Mikey and Brendan MacDonald, Dakota Rocco, Austin Divitcos, Justin Reid, Shane Morlock, Jesse Copeland and Captain Kody Lyons.

The series will open up with the first two games in Halton Hills as the Dogs finished with a 17-2-1 record. 

Luke Laidlaw was the Dogs top performer in the playoffs a year ago and he enters the 2012 playoffs coming off a career year in which he established team records for points in a season with 114 and assists with 71.

This series will mark the beginning of a long journey for the Dogs as they look to reach the Ontario final for the 4th time in the last 5 seasons.