NO LOVE IN LOSS TO EAGLES

STATION NATION RECAP
FINAL: Screaming Eagles 4, Sea Dogs 2

SAINT JOHN – Luckily, Moncton will (in all likelihood) have the pleasure of facing Cape Breton in round one of the playoffs.

The Screaming Eagles outskated, outhit, and outshot the Saint John Sea Dogs on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station. Although the score of 4-2 will not indicate how much Cape Breton dominated – they did.

The score of the game did not mater however, as all the drama and controversy began in the third period. Jacob Legace hit the crossbar, and although he thought he scored, play continued for over two minutes with the score tied at two. But when play stopped and the goal was reviewed, the officials call was overruled and declared a goal to give the Eagles a 3-2 win and the eventual victory.
The controversy over the goal only got worse on the News 88.9 post-game show. Play-by-play man Tim Roszell said that many off-ice officials, including the camera operator, did not have a clear shot of evidence that the puck went into the net.

Station Nation will have more on this tomorrow.

Karel St. Laurent had a strong game in a losing cause after struggling in his last start against the last place Halifax Mooseheads last Friday at the Metro Centre.

Will Johnston and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Saint John. Cape Breton scored four unanswered goals thanks to Luke Adam, Kalin Paul, Legace, and Nick McNeil.

The play started early on when Viktor Hertzberg and his three member fan club hit the outside of the post on the low blocker side of St. Laurent. Then Huberdeau was stopped by Cape Breton starter Olivier Roy through traffic.

St. Laurent continued his hot play when he made a nice leg save on a tipped shot I front.

At 4:00, Mike Thomas was called for holding the stick. The Eagles had great pressure on the power play, with their best chance coming when Legace missed a wide open net on a one time pass.

Johnston opened the scoring at 7:11 with his first QMJHL goal. Kevin Gagne let a shot go from inside the blue line that was stopped by Roy in the crease. The rebound went to Johnston who was parked at the side of the goal and made no mistake to give the Sea Dogs a 1-0 lead.

The physical play heated up when Simon Despres was dumped into the end boards on a big hit behind the Eagles goal. Then Stanislav Galiev was stopped on a partial breakaway and went very hard into the boards. He would be okay and stayed in the game.

Saint John made it 2-0 at 11:39 when Huberdeau did some good work behind the net. After he had control of the puck, the rookie went to the front of the net and fooled Roy with a low shot thru the five hole to extend the Dogs’ lead.

A big hit at the Saint John bench set off every player on the ice. Maxime Legault and Danick Gauthier got into a hugging match on the ice before Thomas skated over and began throwing the fists every which way. Both Gauthier and Legault got called for roughing.

Luke Adam cut the Eagles’ lead to one when he scored his 40th goal of the year at 19:10. Adam was left all alone in front of the net. He skated from left to right in the crease and roofed a backhand shot over St. Laurent to make it 2-1 Dogs heading to the intermission.

In the second, Saint John had a two man advantage after Francis Meillur and Legace were both called. Mike Hoffman was stopped on a one time chance from beside the faceoff dot. That would be all for the power play as the Sea Dogs were brutal all game on the man advantage, going 0/5 and allowing a shorthanded goal.

After Stephen Woodworth was called for roughing, Despres went in all alone on an end-to-end rush and centered a pass but nobody was there to accept it. Saint John could hardly enter the zone at all on the power play.

With Johnston playing on the top line with Hoffman and Nicholas Petersen, Hoffman centered for Johnston in front but Roy made a terrific cross crease save.

After Pierre Durepos was robbed by the glove of Roy, Tomas Jurco fed Zach Phillips but was stopped on the partial break. At 14:07, Christian Morin was called after throwing down his man after the whistle. Saint John had a solid penalty kill though, and kept the Screaming Eagles’ shots at the point.

In the third period, the Eagles killed off a Leagault penalty. The Eagles hardly allowed the Sea Dogs to enter zone. When they did, the puck was turned over and cleared down the ice.

Petersen made a great play to get across the blue line by splitting and deking around the Eagle defense. He passed over to Michael Kirkpatrick down low but was stopped by a nice pad save of Roy. The Edmonton Oiler prospect made 32 saves on the night.

The back-and-forth play began after that with both teams having some good possession but no terrific scoring chances. When that ended, Phillips was called for a hook. The Sea Dogs did some good work on the penalty kill again and blocked a ton of shots all night.

At 12:50, Kalin Paul of all people tied the game on a shot that surprised St. Laurent. Paul sent a point shot go that went thru traffic and beat the Saint John net minder low blocker side to even the affair at 2-2.

Then the chaos started. Leagault was called again at 13:24 after tripping up Jurco in the Sea Dogs zone. Taylor MacDougal, who was obviously upset over his father’s UNB Varsity Reds’ first loss of the year, was stopped on a good shorthanded chance.

Then after a two-on-one chance was stopped by St. Laurent, the puck went in front to Legace who had a wide open cage but appeared to hit the crossbar. St. Laurent did just about everything he could do by diving across the crease head first. The Buffalo Sabers prospect lifted his hands up and began celebrating – but play continued.

Saint John had no good chances on the power play. After the man advantage ended, Gauthier let a shot go that hit Roy in the mask.

The whistle finally blew at 3:38 with the four on-ice officials heading over to the phone. After a lengthy review, it was ruled a goal. That meant the clock was wound back to 5:46 and 1:10 was left in Legault’s tripping penalty. Eagles now lead 3-2.

Saint John did everything they could to get that goal back but could not beat a strong Eagles defense.

At 19:30, Galiev wound up for a big point shot but split his stick in two and gave McNeil a long breakaway with an empty net. Cape Breton wins 4-2.

Shots were 36-34 in favour of Cape Breton.

NEW RECORD: Olivier Roy (CAP) – this afternoon, with his win, he has tied the franchise record: “Most wins by a goaltender, in career, in the history of the franchise (Sorel – Verdun – Granby – Cape Breton)”, record previously established by Claude Legris (87 with Sorel).

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

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs head to Halifax for a 7:00 pm game on Wednesday against the Mooseheads.