ST. LAURENT STONES OLYMPIQUES

STATION NATION POST-GAME
FINAL: Olympiques 0, Sea Dogs 2

SAINT JOHN – The weather outside was frightful, but inside the scene was oh so delightful on holiday fun night at Harbour Station. Karel St. Laurent recorded his second career shutout and Nicholas Pard scored both goals as Saint John shutout Gatineau 2-0 on Saturday night.

The win was the Sea Dogs’ nineteenth consecutive victory. The victory ties the Dogs for third all-time in the QMJHL with Sidney Crosby’s 2004-05 Rimouski Oceanic. The Oceanic went on to lose to the London Knights in the Memorial Cup final that year.

Gatineau put Saint John to the test however at many points during the game and were winning the shots on goal battle half way through the game. But the fact that they were playing their fourth game in six nights proved to match to overcome for the Olympiques.

The game saw the return of former Sea Dog Alexandre Leduc to Harbour Station. He made his presence known early as well as his displeasure for being traded from the second best team in the country. Leduc leveled Mike Hoffman, one of the men who stole his job, into the Olympiques open bench door at 0:23 of the first period giving Saint John a power play.

Saint John made them pay at 2:15 as Nicholas Pard netted his sixth goal of the 2009-10 campaign. Jonathan Huberdeau fired a shot at Maxime Clermont that produced a juicy rebound for Pard who beat the out of position goaltender.

Mass chaos ensued following the goal as hundreds of teddy bears hit the ice. The bears were collected by the Saint John Police Department and caused a 10 minute delay.

Shortly after the goal, Tye McGinn shot wide of the Sea Dogs goal. Then at 3:32 Philippe Halley had a wide open net but fell over after receiving the pass. Karel St. Laurent was up to his tricks at 6:37 as he went to play to play the puck behind the net but panicked and caused a good Gatineau scoring chance on a wraparound.

It was a chippy first period and Leduc was at the center of it all. Leduc tripped up St. Laurent at 9:27 and gave the Dogs a power play chance. Mike Hoffman fed Steven Anthony who tipped a shot on Clermont who made the save. Then Pard fed Stanislav Galiev who blasted a shot high.

Kevin Gagne made a nice play to stop a Alexandre Quesnel's breakaway. The Olympiques leading scorer had the puck swept away beautifully by Gagne.

Saint John had by far the better scoring chances in the period but shots were tied 10-10.

At 1:06 Hubert Labrie leveled Nicholas Petersen along the boards. Less than two minutes later he laid out Danick Gauthier at the blue line.

Nicholas Boyer took a holding the stick penalty at 5:06. With the Dogs on the power play, Yann Sauve’s point shot produced a rebound that went to Pard who beat Clermont low blocker side to make it 2-0 Saint John.

At 10:14 Sauve took a questionable elbowing penalty. The Canucks prospect placed a nice hip check on McGinn but went to the sin bin for his actions.

At 16:30 Petersen clearly had his stick ripped out of his hands by a Gatineau player but no call was made. Petersen slowly wondered to his bench while chirping at an official.

Gatineau outshot the Sea Dogs 8-7 in the second period.

At 1:51 the birthday boy, Nathan Beaulieu, gave a great cross ice pass to Stephen MacAulay in the slot but was stopped by an old fashion pad stack. Then at 3:07 Huberdeau stole the puck at the Gatineau blue line and made a backhand-to-forehand deke but was stoned by the pad of Clermont.

Sauve leveled Josh Domingues at 11:20 in the corner. Than at 12:46 a strange play happened as a Gatineau slap shot was deflected into the rafters of the east end of Harbour Station.

In the last minute of play some rough stuff happened by the Sea Dogs goal. A scrum involving Sauve caused a crowd. For some reason, St. Laurent had his mask off and was then high sticked in the face but was okay. That would be all as the Sea Dogs defeated the Olympiques 2-0.

Shots in the third period were 18-6 Saint John for a game total of 35-24 in favour of the home squad.

St. Laurent picked up his first win in just under two weeks and improved to 9-2-0 on the season. Clermont fell to 12-14-0 on the year. Saint John was 2/5 on the man advantage.

NOTES: See Station Nation tomorrow afternoon for Sea Dogs Post-Game Notebook.

NEXT GAME: Lewiston MAINEiacs vs Saint John Sea Dogs. Sunday, December 06, 2009 at 4:00 pm at Harbour Station.