SEA DOGS POST-GAME NOTEBOOK

MAINEIACS-SEA DOGS GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score: Lewiston 3, Saint John 8
Saint John Goals: Tomas Jurco (7), Michael Kirkpatrick (8, 9), Mike Hoffman (20), Nicholas Petersen (18), Nicholas Pard (8), Danick Gauthier (9), and Jonathan Huberdeau (7)
Lewiston Goals: Etienne Brodeur (8), Jean-Francois Plante (3), Billy Lacasse (9)
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Gelinas, Marc-Antoine (19-3-0)
Losing Goaltender: LEW – Lemay, Adrien (10-17-0)

THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Saint John 3/5, Lewiston 1/7
Shots on Goal: Saint John – 15+13+22=50, Lewiston – 9+16+11=36
Attendance: 3,316

SCRATCHES
Saint John scratched Gabriel Bourret in favour of Benjamin Lecomte. Olivier Ouellet was the other of course the other.

IT GOES ON
Unless you are completely oblivious to everything in the Saint John area, you’ve likely heard about this little streak the Sea Dogs are on. With their win on Sunday, Saint John has won 20 straight games. The streak is good for third all-time in the QMJHL after beating Sidney Crosby’s 2004-05 Rimouski Oceanic’s 19 game streak.

On the other side of the ice, Lewiston lost a thirteenth straight contest. The streak is good the fifteenth all-time.

MACADAM IMPRESSED
Maineiacs head coach Don MacAdam was in awe of the Sea Dogs play on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station.

"Saint John is hands down the best team we've played this year,” he said to the Sea Dogs Twitter page. “They're both well-coached and highly-skilled."

"The Sea Dogs are an excellent hockey team,'' MacAdam told the Telegraph-Journal.”Good teams and great teams know that when the game is on the line, they have to crank it up. I saw that last year when (Mike) Hoffman was in Drummondville and they have a number of guys here who do the very same thing.”

Over the course of their two head-to-head match-ups, Saint John has outscored Lewiston 15-7. Despite the offense, the former UNB coach likes their defense.

“They're really, really composed and they handle the puck with a lot of patience and they're very calm with it.”

A WILD SECOND PERIOD
The middle frame was a wild one as the back-and-forth play heated up. With Saint John leading 4-1, Lewiston rattled off two straight and appeared to tie the game. The goal was called off because the whistle blew, allowing Nicholas Petersen to give the Dogs back their two goal lead heading to the third.

"We had a miserable second (period),'' Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant said to the Telegraph-Journal."It's one of those games where we're up 4-1 and you think it's going to be easy and then you stop playing.''

STRUGGLING IN NET
Jordan Kennedy got the start in net but was pulled after allowing two goals on six shots just over seven minutes into the first. 20-year-old Adrien Lemay came in to replace him.

"Adrien's really been carrying the load for us and we wanted to try and give him some time off," MacAdam told the Lewiston Sun Journal. "Also, we wanted to give Jordan a chance to play his way out of whatever's wrong, but it was evident early he was uncomfortable in there and we had to make the change."

Kennedy played earlier this season against Saint John in pre-season action.

K.G. NAILED IN THE KNEE
Kevin Gagne suffered what looked to be a significant knee injury during the second period while killing a penalty. New Jersey Devils prospect Eric Gelinas let a slap shot go that hit the second year defenseman in the knee.

He laid on the ice for several minutes and couldn’t get to the bench, allowing Lewiston to score on the man advantage. Gagne left and didn’t return.

He will likely be revaluated today. The Sea Dogs have released no details on the injury despite repeated requests on the Dogs’ Facebook page.

SCOUTS IN THE HOUSE
According to the Telegraph-Journal, there were scouts from Anaheim, Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Washington, Vancouver, the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders at Harbour Station this weekend.

IS ANYBODY ELSE CONFUSED?
The Daily Gleaner was advertising the 1983-84 UNB Red Devils reunion as if it were to be the greatest sporting event ever to come to Fredericton. In the dozen or so articles, they talked to Sea Dogs associate coach Mike Kelly about the reunion who even said, “There'll be a lot of great stories to go around, I'm sure.”

Come to find out on Sunday, Kelly was in Montreal all weekend scouting according to News 88.9.

QUICK HITS
Wayne Long said in the Telegraph-Journal that he was actually impressed by the attendance with it being a Sunday and it snowing outside… Maineiac defender Steven Woodworth was assigned to the Halifax Lions of the MJAHL after the game… missing from the Lewiston lineup was Eric Bonawitz who has the flu. The team rented a car and a team assistant drove Bonawitz from Halifax to Saint John, where his mother picked him up for the remainder of the ride… three Sea Dogs had three points and five had two points… the Windsor Spitfires fell to the Oshawa Generals in a shootout on Sunday at General Motors Place. The loss gives Saint John a good chance to become the number one ranked team in the CHL this week… Peter McDevitt returned as P.A. announcer after missing Saturday’s game.

OUT OF TOWN
Elsewhere in the QMJHL it was: Victoriaville 3 Chicoutimi 0; Shawinigan 6 Drummondville 3; Rimouski 5 Quebec 6; Moncton 5 Cape Breton 4; Baie-Comeau 6 Rouyn-Noranda 2; and Val-d'Or 4 Montreal 1.

CANADIAN PRESS RECAP
At Saint John, N.B., Michael Kirkpatrick scored twice and added an assist as the Sea Dogs rolled Lewiston and won their 20th game in a row.

Tomas Jurco, Mike Hoffman, Nicholas Petersen, Nicholas Pard, Danick Gauthier and Jonathan Huberdeau all scored for Saint John (28-4-1).

Etienne Brodeur, Jean-Francois Plante and Billy Lacasse replied for the Maineiacs (10-20-1).

SEADOGSTV HIGHLIGHTS



NEXT GAME
Saint John Sea Dogs vs PEI Rocket. Friday, December 11, 2009 at 7:00 pm at Charlottetown Civic Centre.