LECOMTE SHINES AGAINST FORMER TEAM

STATION NATION POST-GAME
Saint John – The Sea Dogs’ winning ways continued on Saturday at Harbour Station. Saint John won a dominant game over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and took the victory by a score of 6-2.

Saint John (18-4-1-0) has now won a franchise record ten consecutive games with the victory. Scoring for Saint John were Olivier Ouellet, Benjamin Lecomte, Steven Anthony, Mike Hoffman, and Danick Gauthier.

Replying for the Huskies were Jerome Raymond and Dimitri Kostromitin.

Saint John opened the scoring at the one minute mark of the first period. Benjamin Lecomte sent a point shot wide of the goal and was picked up by Olivier Ouellet. Ouellet then tried a centering pass but deflected off the leg of Huskies net minder Mickael Audette and in.

It was déjà vu all over again at 7:45 for Audette. Lecomte went around the back of the goal and tried a centering pass that once again went backdoor on the goaltender. Steven Anthony provided the distraction in front of the goal.

The goal was bitter sweet for Lecomte not only because it was his first of the season. The goals came against his former team and finally connected after three straight point shots that had Harbour Station buzzing.

Steven Anthony made it 3-0 at 11:25. The Vancouver Canucks prospect came across the blue line and sent a weak little wrister that hit a Huskies defenseman and fooled Audette five hole. Audette was pulled from the game after allowing three goals on 12 shots.

Mike Thomas continued the first period assault as he almost netted his second goal of the season off a nifty pass from Anthony. A few minutes later Stephen MacAulay fed his line mate Nicholas Pard a beautiful pass but could not send it home.

Saint John dominated the first period and outshot Rouyn-Noranda 16-8.

After some good Saint John scoring chances by Mike Hoffman, Rouyn-Noranda finally started to gain some control after banging a shot over Karel St. Laurent’s glove and off the post.

The best scoring chance came when a Huskies forward flung a shot through the crease and out the other side. Rouyn-Noranda outshot Saint John 7-6 in the second period but the Sea Dogs still had a 3-0 lead going into the final period.

After some hard work along the boards by Nicholas Petersen and Stanislav Galiev, the Russian forward sent a pass to Mike Hoffman who was all alone in front of the goal and dangled home his ninth of the season at 6:04.

Less than a minute later Benjamin Lecomte was back at it as he made it 5-0 in favour of the home team. Lecomte worked his magic at the point a sent a wrist shot that went into the left corner to beat Jessy Lecours.

The Huskies got on the board at 7:32 and ended Karel St. Laurent’s attempt at a second career shutout. After a faceoff there was a scramble in front of the goal with Jerome Raymond finding the loose puck and making it 5-1.

St. Laurent made a great cross crease save but couldn’t stop a point shot from Dmitri Kostromitin. Kostromitin blasted a wonderful slap shot that beat St. Laurent clean to cut the lead to three.

Any chance of a Rouyn-Noranda comeback was put to rest when Danick Gauthier scored high glove side on a breakaway at 14:22. The breakaway came after some hard checking by Mike Thomas at the red line and fed a pass to Gauthier. Thomas gets his first assist of the season and ties him with goaltender Marc-Antoine Gelinas in points.

Saint John won the shooting contest by a final amount of 32-30 through three periods. St. Laurent improves his record to 6-2-0 while Audette takes the loss and falls to 9-11-0.

NOTES: The attendance was an unacceptable 3,718… Michael Kirkpatrick extended his point streak to seven games. He has ten points in that span… the fourth line had yet another strong game. The line consists of forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Stephen MacAulay, and Nicholas Pard… the top line of Galiev, Hoffman, and Petersen combined for one goal and two assists… Fleaburn must have forgotten his medication as he was going absolutely bonkers from puck drop to the final horn… Huskies leading scorer Gabriel Levesque was held scoreless and was a -2… Hoffman had a team high six shots… St. Laurent had yet another shutout stolen from him on Saturday night… I didn’t get a good look at it but the Huskies team bus but it's very, very unconventional.

NEXT GAME: Rouyn-Noranda Huskies vs Saint John Sea Dogs. Today at 4:00 pm at Harbour Station. It’s “Support our Troops Day” with fans being encouraged to wear red. There will be displays on the concourse and special $10 upper bowl tickets are available for this game.