Wednesday, February 24, 2010

PRE-GAME: Saint John Sea Dogs vs Gatineau Olympiques

Game Day
Saint John Sea Dogs vs Gatineau Olympiques

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Centre Robert Guertin

Visiting Team: Saint John Sea Dogs
Record: 48-10-1-0 (1st in Atlantic Division)
Last Game: 3-2 overtime win vs Rimouski on Sunday
Leading Scorer: Mike Hoffman: 48 GP-38 G-36 A-74 Pts
NHL Draft Picks: Yann Sauve (Vancouver), Marco Cousineau (Anaheim), Simon Despres (Pittsburgh), Steven Anthony (Vancouver), Mike Hoffman (Ottawa), and Nicholas Petersen (Pittsburgh).
Notes: Saint John sits first in the Atlantic division, first overall in the QMJHL, and are ranked number one in the country… coming off a thrilling overtime victory over Rimouski at Harbour Station on Sunday afternoon. Mike Hoffman scored the winner in O.T. to give the Sea Dogs a 3-2 win. The last time Hoffman scored in overtime at Harbour Station, the Sea Dogs went on to win 22-straight games… 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 games but are 3-2-0-0 in their last five games and were outscored 5-4 in their weekend split… have scored the most goals in the QMJHL with 269 goals for and have allowed the second fewest goals against with 156… 23-4-1-0 on the road this season which is two regulation loses fewer than they have at home. 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 road games and have won four straight… Saint John has scored the most goals of any team on the road this season with 128 goals for. Moncton his close behind with 121goals for while Drummondville has 120… 13 of Hoffman’s 38 goals have been game winners. His goal total is good for third in the league. He needs five goals to break Scott Howes’ Sea Dogs record for goals in one season… Nicholas Petersen is second in goals scored on the road. He has 22 goals in 24 games… Kevin Gagne and Steven Anthony both missed Sunday’s game with groin injuries. Gagne has now missed three straight games while Anthony missed his first… Stephen MacAulay hurt his shoulder last Wednesday in Halifax and has not played since… Saint John has destroyed Gatineau this season and have yet to allow a goal. They have outscored them 10-0… Tomas Jurco, Danick Gauthier, and Nicholas Pard have all scored two goals this season against Gatineau… the goaltenders, Zach Phillips, Steven Anthony, and Christian Morin are the only players to have not scored a point against the Piques this season… Simon Despres is a +4 against Gatineau while Morin has registered a -2 rating with Val-d’Or against the Olympiques.

Home Team: Gatineau Olympiques
Record: 25-28-2-1 (3rd in Telus Western Division)
Last Game: 3-1 loss at Montreal on Sunday
Leading Scorer: Tye McGinn: 41 GP-23 G-28 A-51 Pts
NHL Draft Picks: Hubert Labrie (Dallas)
Notes: Former Sea Dog Alexandre Leduc was traded to Gatineau earlier this season but has left the team. He had quite a return in Saint John, checking Mike Hoffman from behind on his first shift of the game… former Sea Dog Benjamin Lecomte is no longer with the team as well. He was sent to Val-d’Or and later to Gatineau in the Christian Morin trade. In six games in Gatineau, he had one assist… also no longer with the team is Kevin Charland. Charland was traded to Val-d’Or during the 2009 Holiday trading period for the Foreurs’ first pick in the CHL Import draft – a pick that was used to draft Tomas Jurco… the only Gatineau player to record a point against Saint John this season is Alexandre Beaton, who got an assist before he was traded from Lewiston… Saint John native Ben Miller was traded to Gatineau at the deadline. In two games against Saint John this season, he is a -3… Gatineau has been struggling of late. They are 2-8-0-0 in their last 10 games and have lost seven straight games. It is the longest active streak in the league at this time. Lewiston has the longest losing streak this season with 15... during their losing streak, Gatineau has been outscored 12-28 and have lost all seven games in regulation… have the fifth best penalty kill in the league with a rating of 82.4%... 15-10-1-3 at home this season. They are 3-5-1-1 in their last 10 games and have lost two straight games… no Gatineau players have a plus rating against the Dogs this season. Adam Janosik and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and Alexander Beaton all have a team worst -4… have yet to score against Saint John this season… in their two games versus the Dogs, the Piques are 0/7 on the power play and 8/13 on the penalty kill.

Saint John vs Gatineau:
This Season
(GP-W-L-OTL-SOL-PTS):
2-2-0-0-0-4
Home: 1-1-0-0-0-2
Road: 1-1-0-0-0-2
Goals For: 10
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:
  • The Hockey News named the Gatineau Olympiques organization the team of the decade in the QMJHL. They made the playoffs every season and had a below 0.500 winning percentage only once. Ironically, they are on track to be below .500 to start this new decade.
  • The team’s notables over the years include: Sylvain Turgeon, Sam Lang, Pat Burns, Luc Robitaille, Guy Rouleau, Martin Gélinas, José Théodore, Claude Julien, Colin White, Jiri Fischer, and Maxime Talbot.
  • Gatineau mascot “Hully” turned 12-years old the last time the Sea Dogs were in town. He wore a big hat.
  • The picture above is not photo shopped and was taken from the Olympiques website. The head shaving was part of fundraiser by the team to help the fight against cancer.

EPIC GAME
Editors Note: The following appeared in “Sea Dogs Post-Game Notebook” on January 25 following an 8-0 Sea Dogs win the day before.

This game was a miss match on paper but the result of the game was absolutely insane. Saint John dominated the game from start to finish, and as the second period shots show – everywhere in between.

"(Sunday) was a real good effort for us,'' Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said to the Telegraph-Journal. "We played a full 60 minutes and controlled the play throughout the game. It was a real dominating performance.''

Gallant told Le Droit that he thought this was one of the best games played all season for the Sea Dogs, mentioning the fact that the team was coming off an ugly 6-4 win in Montreal the day before. He also said that his team skated very well and played with a lot of intensity even when the score was so lopsided.

Jean-Francois Plante of Le Droit smartly pointed out that if Saint John had no goaltender through the first two periods, Gatineau would have led the game 7-6 heading into the third. That’s incredible when you think about.

AROUND THE TOWN
WIKIPEDIA
Gatineau (as of 2006 census population 242,124) is a city in western Quebec, Canada, the fourth largest by population in the province (after Montréal, Québec City and Laval). It is paired with Ottawa,the capital of Canada. It is situated on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario, and is located within Canada's National Capital Region. Ottawa and Gatineau comprise a single Census Metropolitan Area. Gatineau is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of the same name, whose geographical code is 81.

THE RINK
Venue:
Centre Robert Guertin
Capacity: 3,196
Average Attendance: 2,617
Arena Guide Info: http://www.qmjhlarenaguide.com/olympiques.htm

MEDIA
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, Le Droit

TWITTER
Follow Station Nation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/station_nation for in game updates from tonight’s game.

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