FINAL: Saint John 7, Charlottetown 3
Lorne Webster | SN Staff
SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea
Dogs (30-21-3-6) managed to open the floodgates in the second period and
earn a convincing 7-3 victory over the visiting Charlottetown Islanders
(28-26-1-3) Friday evening at Harbour Station.
The win was important for the Sea
Dogs in their quest to earn home ice advantage in the first round of the
playoffs. It could prove to be a turning point as the Sea Dogs look to
find the mojo they had during the first half of the season
- especially in light of the five close losses in eight games against the
Islanders thus far this season.
Dan Del Paggio, Mark Tremaine,
Mathieu Joseph, Adam Marsh, Spencer Smallman, Justice Dundas and Thomas Chabot
scored for the Sea Dogs. Ross Johnston tallied two goals and Oliver Cooper
added one for Charlottetown.
A fairly open first period didn't produce
any goals. The period was highlighted by a fight between Dundas
and Johnston after the Islander cross checked Jakub Zboril into the
end boards. Charlottetown led 13-7 on the shot clock in the first
period.
The Sea Dogs came out flying to start
the second period. At 6:41, Del Paggio swatted the rebound of
a Joseph shot past Mason MacDonald to break the ice. Under two
minutes later, Tremaine took Nathan Noel's clean face-off win and fired a
bullet over MacDonald's blocker to extend Saint John's lead to 2-0. Less
than a minute later, Kameron Keilly carried the puck into the Sea Dogs' zone,
cut to the high slot and sent a hard pass to Johnston who tipped it past
Sebastien Auger at the edge of the crease to make it 2-1.
An apparent goal by Noel at
12:28 was disallowed when the video judge determined that the Sea Dogs were offside
well before the goal. Joseph did in fact make it 3-1 when he came out of
the penalty box and one-timed a pass from Tremaine past MacDonald at
14:45. Less than two minutes later, Marsh collected the puck after a mad
goal mouth scramble and snapped it past MacDonald to extend the lead to
4-1. Smallman capped the second period onslaught with 14 seconds left
when he blasted a slap shot through MacDonald's legs after a lovely cross ice feed
from Noel to make it 5-1. Saint John fired 22 shots on net versus eight
for the Islanders in the second period.
Darryl MacCullum relieved MacDonald to
start the third period. The Sea Dogs continued their strong play to start
the third period and, on a power play at 4:55, Dundas tipped a back-door pass
from Noel past MacCullum to extend Saint John's lead to
6-1. On a power play at 6:58, Cooper banged in a rebound to make it
6-2. A few seconds after that goal, Cooper suffered a TKO at the hands of
Boko Imama.
On another power play at 10:16, Johnston
tipped a point shot past Auger to bring Charlottetown back to 6-3. The
power play onslaught continued when Chabot took a cross ice feed from
Jason Bell and his booming slap shot found the top corner to make it 7-3. Noel
chipped in with his fourth assist of the game on Chabot's goal. Saint John
outshot Charlottetown 12-7 in the third to end the game up 41-28 overall.
