PRE-GAME NOTES: Sea Dogs vs Wildcats

GAME DAY
What: Rivalry Cup – Game 8
Who: Saint John Sea Dogs vs Moncton Wildcats
When: Tonight, 8:00 pm
Where: Moncton Coliseum

READY FOR PRIME TIME
PRESS RELEASE
Catch CHL action live across Canada and the United States Sunday night on Rogers Sportsnet, RDS, and the NHL Network!

The QMJHL's top team the Saint John Sea Dogs visit the third ranked Moncton Wildcats to close out the 2009-10 regular season.

The game can be seen live on RDS in Quebec and on Rogers Sportsnet East and Ontario channels at 7:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Mountain time on Rogers Sportsnet West, and 4:00 pm Pacific on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific. In the United States, the game can be seen live on the NHL Network at 7:00 pm Eastern.

TV IS FUN
It’s rare to have Canadian Hockey League games on national television. It’s uber rare to have a QMJHL game featuring two Atlantic teams faceoff on Rogers Sportsnet.

"All my friends and family are going to get the chance to watch so it's special for sure to play on national television," said Wildcat Ted Stephens, a Yukon native, to the Times & Transcript. "People back home have heard me talking about my team and the league. Now, they'll get a chance to see for themselves what it's all about.

"That's an extra motivation for sure knowing that the game is on national television. We want to show everyone who's watching that we're for real. It's going to be a big crowd and we're playing our biggest rival so it should be a great game."

"It's nice to be on national television so our families and friends can watch the game," said Moncton centre Randy Cameron. "It's an extra motivation, but it's not going to change the way we play.

WILDCATS WIN IT AGAIN
For the second straight year, the Moncton Wildcats were victorious in the Brunswick News Rivalry Cup Challenge.

“I think it’s awesome to repeat as Rivalry Cup champion,’’ said Wildcats general manager Bill Schurman to the Times & Transcript. “It’s always easier to win something for the first time than it is the second time to retain it.”

Moncton took the win on Monday when it was released that they had won the Rivalry Cup food drive. The Wildcats hold a 21.5 to 16.5 points lead in the Rivalry Cup standings entering their final meeting of the regular season. The trophy is based on their eight-game season series and there are five components: head-to-head record, attendance, fans road trip challenge, charity food drive and mascot challenge.

TIME TO FUEL UP?
One thing to watch for tonight is if either team decides to play it safe. With this being a meaningless game in regards to the standings, many teams in the past have rested key players from the last game of the year because of the risk of injuries.

ON THE MIC TONIGHT
Rob Faulds of Rogers Sportsnet is expected to get the call as play-by-play man tonight at the Moncton Coliseum. Faulds, a lesser version of Rod Black, is fresh off calling events at the luge track for CTV during the Winter Olympics.

"Just the suspense of it all, Jon (Montgomery) had laid down a great time and we all had to wait to see what (Latvian Martin) Dukurs would do," said Faulds to the London Free Press, who called Friday's London Knights-Windsor Spitfires game at the John Labatt Centre. "We were all watching for that green light on the board to come up to see if Montgomery's time would hold up. I'll remember it forever."

Montgomery's gold helped improve the mood surrounding the sliding sports following the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

When that terrible moment happened, Faulds was on a bus bound for Vancouver to help with CTV's coverage of the opening ceremonies at B.C. Place.

"We knew all the medal favourites had been having trouble with the course and then we heard that someone had gone off the track, was hurt and that it was really bad," he said.

"And after that, they changed the entire course on these guys. ... It was such an unfortunate situation for everyone."

CONFLICT
The final of the Tim Horton’s Brier from Halifax is on TSN at the same time tonight. It’s nice to give Halifax fans something to cheer about, though.