PRE-GAME: Gatineau Olympiques vs Saint John Sea Dogs

Game Day
Gatineau Olympiques vs Saint John Sea Dogs
Tonight, December 5, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
Harbour Station

Visiting Team: Gatineau Olympiques
Record: 15-12-0-3 (2nd in Telus Western Division)
Last Game: 3-2 loss @ Moncton last night
Leading Scorer: Alexandre Quesnel: 30-15-17-32
Notes: The Olympiques have two NHL drafted players: Steven Delisle (Columbus), Hubert Labrie (Dallas)… Adam Janosik and Denis Kindl are the team’s imported players. Both are from the Czech Republic… former Sea Dog Alexandre Leduc now wears purple for the Olympiques. Leduc was traded to Gatineau on October 7th because Saint John had four overage players. In 19 games played with Gatineau, he has three goals and four assists… the Piques are on a bit of a bizarre road trip. It started on Tuesday in Bathurst – a 5-4 shootout loss. Then after a day off, they lost 3-2 in Halifax. Last night they lost 3-2 in Moncton. The game tonight will end Gatineau’s four game road trip through the Maritimes… looking to win their first game on the last game of a four game road trip… they are captained by Steven Delisle… "If we have character, we'll show our colors in these two games," said Head Coach Jerome Dupont to Le Droit about their games in Moncton and Saint John… have lost five straight games… 8-9-0-1 on the road this season… 2-5-0-3 in their last 10 games… have allowed the second fewest goals against in the league with 81… Quesnel had a team high two goals and three assist in three games against Saint John last year.

Home Team: Saint John Sea Dogs
Record: 26-4-1-0 (1st in Atlantic Division)
Last Game: 4-1 Win @ PEI on Wednesday
Leading Scorer: Nicholas Petersen: 23-17-15-32; Michael Kirkpatrick: 30-7-25-32
Notes: Saint John is currently on an 18 game winning streak. The streak is good for a tie for fourth all-time with the 2008-09 Drummondville Voltigeurs. With a win, the Dogs can pull into a tie with Sidney Crosby’s 2004-05 Rimouski Oceanic… Olivier Ouellet has still not rejoined the team after leaving a couple of weeks ago for “personal reasons.”… Mike Hoffman has been a tear of late. He has eight goals in his last four games and 19 in 20 games played this season. He was named offensive player of the month this past week… Nicholas Petersen is on a seven game point streak. He has eight goals and six assists in that span… Marc-Antoine Gelinas will face his former team for the first time tonight. He spent last season in Gatineau and had a 13-10-0 record while recording a 3.33 GAA. He was traded to Saint John on August 24, by far one of the best trades in the QMJHL this season… Saint John has the best home record in the league at 13-2-0-0… have won a team record 11 straight home games... averaging 3,628 fans per game which is good for fourth in the QMJHL… ranked second in the country this week in the CHL Top 10… the first game of a weekend doubleheader. They host Lewiston on Sunday afternoon… Stanislav Galiev is second in rookie scoring with 29 points… have the league’s worst penalty kill with a rating of 73.9%.

Saint John vs Gatineau:
This Season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
0-0-0-0-0-0
Home: 0-0-0-0-0-0
Road: 0-0-0-0-0-0
Goals For: 0
Goals Against: 0

Last Season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
3-2-1-0-0-0
Home: 2-1-1-0-0-0
Road: 1-1-0-0-0-2
Goals For: 14
Goals Against: 7

All-Time- Not Including This Season (GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
9-3-5-0-1-7
Home: 5-1-3-0-1-3
Road: 4-2-2-0-0-4
Goals For: 33
Goals Against: 40

Station Nation Facts:

• Tonight’s home game versus Gatineau has been designated both Teddy Bear Toss Night and Holiday Fun Night. Fans attending this match are invited to bring a stuffed animal with them to throw upon the ice when Saint John scores their first goal of the night. All toys will then be collected and donated to charity. In honour of the Holiday Season, a truly festive atmosphere will engulf Harbour Station on Saturday as Christmas decorations galore will be set up throughout the arena. Meanwhile, Santa Claus himself will be flying down from the North Pole for the evening to cheer on the Sea Dogs as they look to extend their franchise-record wnning streak to 19 games in front of their home fans.
• The London Knights set a team record last night as they collected an amazing 8,232 teddy bears in their 8-1 win over Guelph. That had to take some time to clean up!
• No players from either team were picked to go to Team Canada’s World Junior selection camp later this month.
• In 2003-04, the Olympiques changed their name from Hull to Gatineau.
• The team’s notables over the years include: Sylvain Turgeon, Sam Lang, Pat Burns, Luc Robitaille, Guy Rouleau (photo), Martin Gélinas, José Théodore, Claude Julien, Colin White, Jiri Fischer, and Maxime Talbot.

Important Info:
Venue: Harbour Station
Capacity: 6,297

Saint John Media: Radio- News 88.9 FM (www.news889.com)
Live Video Streaming: www.qmjhl.mytelus.com
Post-Game Coverage: www.stationnation.blogspot.com, Telegraph-Journal, Le Droit
Post-Game Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/user/seadogstv