SEA DOGS POST-GAME NOTEBOOK

SEA DOGS –ROCKET GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score/OT: Saint John 2, PEI 1
Saint John Goals: Nicholas Petersen (2), and Tomas Jurco (2)
PEI Goals: Jean-Philippe Mathieu (1)
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Marco Cousineau (3-1-0)
Losing Goaltender: PEI – Evan Mosher (1-3-0)
News 88.9 Top Dog: Marco Cousineau

THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Rocket: 1/5, Sea Dogs: 0/4
Shots on Goal: Rocket: 10+10+2+1=23, Sea Dogs: 9+10+7+4=30
Attendance: 1,955

SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Aiden Kelly missed the game with a concussion and Steven Anthony was out with a groin injury. Nicholas Pard missed his first game of the post-season with a shoulder injury. He joined Tim Roszell as colour commentator in the first period. His status and time for return is unknown.

JUST A BAD GAME
This game looked a lot like an old timer’s game. It was slow paced at times and then picked up for moment or too. Neither team had great scoring chances with the puck sitting in the neutral zone for a portion of time. Yes, this describes game four of the first round of the 2010 playoffs.

Saint John never really found their legs until the final three minutes of the third period. Prior to that, the PEI Rocket managed to score half way through the first, a goal that hold up for over 57 minutes.

Neither team could generate any offence on the night. Whether the offence was that bad or the defense was that good is hard to tell. Saint John’s defense, which was criticized following their game three performance, seemed to play well for most of the tilt.

Despite the lack of goal scoring ability, the Rocket had the upper hand for most of the game. But good fortune has been on the side of the Sea Dogs all season and was proved once again as the Dogs took a 2-1 overtime win.

"I'm really proud of our team,'' said Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant to the Telegraph-Journal. "It was good how we found a way to win. It was a hell of a game.''

The Dogs lead the best-of-seven series 3-1.

JUST CHILLIN’
With five minutes left in the game and PEI up 1-0, the Rocket chose to sit back and try to battle through the Saint John surge instead of attacking.

It didn’t work at all.

“It’s definitely not what the team wanted. We can’t back off and that’s what we did,” said J-P Mathieu to The Guardian. “We played a bit scared, not willing to win. Most of the game we were right there.”

Evidence of the Rocket’s third period work can be seen on the shots on goal counter, with PEI only firing two shots to Saint John’s seven.

RANDOM STUFF
Strange comment of the day comes from the Charlottetown Guardian:

the sound of one hand clapping from Ch'town, PE writes: 1900 & change...jobs are on the line.

like i said,great support rocket fans.

bye bye mon cowboy...GO SEA DOGS!!!

(btw, i won a free coffee on timmy's role up...who won the 50/50? )

OT DOMINANCE
In overtime, Saint John either wanted to head home quickly or the Rocket don’t understand the meaning of “sudden death.”

"All (through) overtime, we dominated,'' said Jurco, who leads the Sea Dogs with seven playoff points.

"We worked hard and they know we have skilled players and they were trying to be tough, but I think we were tough, too.''

The Sea Dogs outshot PEI 4-1, with almost the entire 3:55 played in the Saint John zone.

"We really took over in overtime,'' Gallant said. "We skated really well and we had great chances. We're an offensive team that can skate and we just wanted to play our game without taking any risks.''

Saint John is 2-1 all-time in playoff overtime.

GOOD GOALTENDING
Both Evan Mosher and Marco Cousineau put in strong efforts on Wednesday night in Charlottetown.

Mosher continued his phenomenal playoff performance by stopping 28 of 30 shots. Neither goal he let in could be considered bad goals with the first coming from a cross ice pass and the other a surprisingly quick shot.

Cousineau was overlooked in this game even with PEI having some terrific scoring chances. Saint John allowed a few odd-man rushes but “Cousy” was there to back them up.

SAUVE GETS THE BOOT
Just 44-seconds into the second period, Yann Sauve was tossed after he received a five minute major penalty for checking from behind. He leveled Jarred Struthers in the corner in what appeared to be a nasty face plant into the boards.

Struthers returned on the power play shortly after, a man advantage that saw PEI only record one shot.

A DVD of Sauve’s game three elbow was sent to league already with no suspension given. Ever since then, the Civic Centre faithful have been booing the 19-year old. News 88.9 said that Sauve really doesn’t know why they have been booing him immensely.

BIZARRO-WORLD SCHEMBRI
When Chuckie Schembri was called up for game two, he was expected to throw the body around. The opposite has happened so far.

After getting rocked by Jordan Southorn last Saturday, Schembri had two good scoring chances in front but was thrown off the puck on both opportunities.

HIGHLIGHTS
Some good shots of the Yann Sauve hit.


QUICK HITS
The game started a few minutes late with some light problems at the Charlottetown Civic Centre. It was darkness for several minutes and the lights took some time to come on… Charles Reid and his live blog continued their fight against the Civic Centre internet “gremlins.” Keep the faith Charles… the only other Sea Dog to score a playoff overtime goal was Payton Liske in 2008… Saint John averaged 4.5 goals per game in the regular season… News 88.9’s Tim Roszell made it very well known that there will be no commercials in overtime hockey.

NEXT GAME
Saint John can move on to the quarter-finals with a win in game five on Friday. Game time is 7:30 pm at Harbour Station.