SEA DOGS WIN AN EPIC DUEL

STATION NATION POST-GAME
Saint John – Hockey was at its best on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station. The score was lopsided but the game was as entertaining as a UFC match. Four fights took place in a 6-1 Sea Dogs victory over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

"Bathurst is one of our biggest rivals and I think we sent them a pretty good message out there today,” said Nathan Beaulieu following the Saint John victory. Beaulieu had one of the best fights of the season as he stood toe-to-toe with Bryce Milson.

Saint John’s offense exploded yet again as six different players scored goals on Sunday. Goaltender Karel St. Laurent was 6:23 away from his second career shut-out.

Scoring the lone goal for the Titan was Derek Famulare.

Saint John opened the scoring at 4:09 of the first period. Stephen MacAulay fed a nice backhand pass to Yann Sauve who made it 1-0.

Eric Faille was interfered with on a breakaway at 8:12 and was given a second opportunity in the form of a penalty shot. His shot was stopped by Karel St. Laurent who sported the Marty Turco like shootout stance.

It looked as if Olivier Oullet had made it 2-0 but was overruled by the men upstairs. His shot took a ding off both the crossbar and post and stayed out. Nobody on the ice thought it went in but the goal horn went off prematurely and caused a review.

Nathan Beaulieu made it 2-0 off a blast from the point at 11:20. A couple minutes later Mike Hoffman lifted a backhander from close range over the glove of Titan goalie Guillaume Nadeau to make it 3-0.

St. Laurent made 10 saves including two breakaways in the first period. Saint John had 16 shots.

It was a scoreless second period but was very entertaining.

St. Laurent stopped yet another breakaway to start the second period. He stopped Jonathan Lessard with a pad save.

Fredericton native Zach Phillips got into his first career QMJHL fight at 9:03. He and Alexis Bernier both got some good shots in and was declared a draw. Then following a scramble in front of the Titan goal, Olivier Malka gave Stanislav Galiev and Olivier Ouellet a face wash with his glove.

Jonathan Huberdeau almost added to his list of incredible goals this season. He completely fooled a Titan defender and made an amazing move around Nadeau but couldn’t slip it home.

Despite not having the better chances, Bathurst outshot Saint John 7-6 in the second.

After a horrible giveaway by a Titan defenseman Mike Thomas scored his first of the season. Thomas ripped home a shot from the hash marks that Nadeau had no chance on at 4:26.

The ensuing faceoff caused a round of fisticuffs between Beaulieu and Milson. Both players got some great shots in what is the fight of the year so far. Beaulieu was given the decision following the take down and brought the Harbour Station faithful to their feet.

At 5:16 Galiev pushed home the puck in a scramble to give the Dogs a 5-0 lead. The celebration was short lived with Simon Despres getting mixed up with some frustrated Titan forwards and caused a scrum.

Following some good Sea Dog scoring chances, Stephen MacAulay and Julien Tremblay dropped the gloves at 12:13. The fight was a draw with both players being slip apart by the officials.

At 13:37 it was heartbreak for St. Laurent who was out of position to make the save off the stick of Derek Famulare. That made it 5-1 Saint John.

Olivier Malka gave a very dangerous cross check to the face of Galiev. The Russian rookie was down for several minutes with Sea Dogs athletic therapist Jeff Kelly. He would be okay and wouldn’t miss a shift. On the ensuing power play Simon Despres made no mistake to make it 6-1 at 14:56.

It looked like Mike Hoffman made it 7-1 by slipping a shot by Nadeau that squeaked in. The goal went under review and was deemed no goal after a long delay.

It wouldn’t be a physical game without Mike Thomas now would it? The new Sea Dogs captain dropped the goals with Vincent Arseneau with Thomas taking him down.

The win keeps Saint John in first place in the Atlantic division. The Sea Dogs have now won five straight games. The Titan were outshot 39-22 through three periods.

NOTES: Decent crowd for a Sunday afternoon. The attendance was 3, 702… the Halloween costume parade took so long that the Zamboni’s had to come out to clean the ice with only a few minutes left in the first intermission… the 50/50 winner was a member of the Titan fan bus that made the trek up… Nathan Beaulieu spent almost the entire third period in the box as he picked up a 10 minute penalty for taking his helmet off prior to the fight. The fight was lucky to have taken place with the linesman just about to step in… Danick Gauthier could have easily had a hat trick but was denied by Nadeau… St. Laurent got the start in goal after a Marc-Antoine Gelinas shutout on Saturday… Saint John allowed an alarming number of breakaways to the Titan… Saint John went 2/6 on the power play and kept the Titan to 0/6… the Titan took their pre-game stretching to the parking lot where they were almost run over several times… a ridiculous amount of Irving noisemakers were given out… Vincent Arseneau did some showboating in the penalty box. The likes included a nice wave to the crowd following the Titan’s lone goal... the Malka cross check will likely cause a suspension.

NEXT GAME: Saint John Sea Dogs vs Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 8:00 pm at Centre Georges-Vezina.