FOREURS FUMBLE IN THIRD

STATION NATION REWIND
FINAL: Foreurs 3, Sea Dogs 6

SAINT JOHN – Marco Scandella is a beast.

The Canadian junior team member played well over 30 minutes for the Val-d’Or Foreurs on Friday night at Harbour Station. Scandella proved to be the Mike Hoffman of QMJHL defenseman as he showed he was a man playing amongst boys.

Despite Scandella’s brave performance against the number one team in Canada, his Foreurs fell to the Saint John Sea Dogs 6-3 on country night at the Station.

It wasn’t the Sea Dogs’ best effort of the season, and were even down by score of 2-1 at 6:50 of the second period.

"We didn't play our best game tonight but we'll definitely take the two points,” said Saint John captain Mike Thomas after the game on the Dogs’ Twitter page. Thomas scored what proved to be the game winner at 11:59 of the third period.

“ I expect a better effort tomorrow," said Thomas about tomorrow’s rematch against the Foreurs at Harbour Station.

The first five minutes of the game showed that neither team wanted to score first with the two team’s failing to record a shot. Slowly, Saint John began to gain some momentum and had several solid chances but were stopped by a steady Raffaele D’Orso.

At 14:23, Nathan Beaulieu ripped a shot from the point that was tipped by D’Orso by Nicholas Pard to open the scoring. The goal came on the power play, one of three extra man goals on the night in five chances.

Nearing the end of the period with Yann Sauve in the box, Danick Gauthier was stopped by D’Orso on a shorthanded breakaway with the pads.

Shots in the first period were 9-2 Sea Dogs.

Just 2:15 into the second, Mathieu Leduc sent a point shot on goal that lay among a heavy amount of traffic in front of Marco Cousineau. Anthony Taylor found the puck and walked around a screened Cousineau to tie the game 1-1.

Val-d’Or took a 2-1 lead at 6:50 when scramble in front was finished off by Samuel Morneau, his 25th of the season.

Less than a minute later Saint John tied the game again. A wrist shot on goal was rebounded to the stick of Jonathan Huberdeau who scooped the disc into the empty cage to make it a 2-2.

After some nice work to get the puck into the offensive zone, Michael Kirkpatrick carried the puck down the wing and beat D’Orso five-hole on a backhand to give the Dogs the lead.

Shots in the middle frame were 15-13 Val-d’Or.

Marco Scandella slapped a point shot on goal at 4:24 of the third and was deflected up and over Cousineau by Cedrick Henlley to tie the match yet again.

Then Val-d’Or collapsed.

At 11:59 a freakish bounce off the backboards led to a Saint John goal. D’Orso was caught reading board signage on the other side of the ice while the puck lay in his crease. Thomas scored the garbage goal in front to give Saint John back the lead.

After the Foreurs were caught with too many men on the ice, Saint John extended their lead to two goals. Simon Despres fired a point shot that was tipped beautifully by Stanislav Galiev at 13:32 of the stanza. Despres appeared to hurt his wrist on the play but was okay.

Despres then started a rush up through center and found Nicholas Petersen behind the defense. Petersen went alone and shot the puck against D’Orso’s leg. The Val-d’Or net minder looked like a Toyota gas pedal as he slid – along with the puck – across the line to give the Dogs their 6-3 victory.

Shots in the third were 17-10 Saint John.

Cousineau was solid when called upon in the Saint John crease and is now 3-0 since switching his jersey number to 79 last week. The 20-year old stopped 24 shots and improved to 16-15-0 on the year.

D’Orso fell to 11-20-0 on the season.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Val-d’Or Foreurs again on Saturday night at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station.