Wednesday, October 14, 2009

GALLANT FIRED UP OVER LOSS

Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant is laying down the law this season. Following yesterday's 4-0 loss in Charlottetown, he had this to say.

"It was pretty well an embarrassing performance,'' Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant told the Telegraph-Journal following the loss. "We tried a little harder in the third period, but after getting beat in your own building by P.E.I. 6-1 earlier in the season (Sept. 23) and then getting destroyed again tonight, it's very disappointing.

"I'm looking for some leadership in that room and I haven't seen any. Some nights you have some bad games, but tonight there was no excuse." The team has yet to name a captain.

"They had Monday off, but there was just no focus at all,'' continued the coach "I take some responsibility for that, too. To come in here and play a stinker game against a division team that beat us earlier in our building, there's no excuse for that.''

It certainly is an interesting situation with the two worst loses of the season coming against the Rocket. The Sea Dogs have dominated PEI in the last two season's including a playoff sweep.

Gallant also sent a message to his team to start the third period. He sat goaltender Marc-Antoine Gelinas after allowing three goals on the night. He had a shutout on Sunday.

Mike Hoffman has only played two games this season with both being against the Rocket. Both have been loses for the 52 goal scorer from a year ago. Saint John has been outscored 10-1 in the two meetings.

So what went wrong for the Sea Dogs on Tuesday night?

“Pretty much everything. We didn’t stick to the plan,” said the Sea Dogs’ Mike Hoffman to The Guardian, who returned after missing almost three weeks with a stress fracture in his left foot. “(They) got a couple of goals and kind of shut us down a little.”

Rocket-Sea Dogs game at a glance:
The Outcome - P.E.I. 4 Saint John 0.
The Goalscorers - Saint John: P.E.I.: Benjamin Casavant (5), Joël Champagne (3), Jordan Escott (7), Cody Linteau (1).
The Assists - Saint John: P.E.I.: Éric Bouchard (3), Benjamin Casavant (5), Chris Doyle (4), Ben Duffy (1), Jean-Philippe Mathieu (7), Jordon Southorn (5), Jarrad Struthers (4).
The Goaltenders - Saint John: Marc-Antoine Gélinas, 16-19, loss (5-3), Karel St-Laurent, 12-13; P.E.I.: Marco Cousineau, 25-25, win (4-4).
Attendance - 1,706.
By The Numbers
Shots By Period - Saint John: 6-10-9, 25; P.E.I.: 13-10-9, 32.
Penalty Minutes - Saint John: 13; P.E.I.: 18.
Power Play - Saint John: 0-5; P.E.I.: 0-3.
Hits - Saint John: 14; P.E.I.: 18.

Game in a glance was featured in today's The Guardian newspaper. Click HERE to view the article.

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