SEA DOGS POST-GAME NOTEBOOK

SEA DOGS – OLYMPIQUES GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score: Gatineau 4, Saint John 7
Saint John Goals: Tomas Jurco (3), Stanislav Galiev (3, 4), Michael Kirkpatrick (2, 3), Nicholas Pard (2), and Mike Hoffman (4)
Gatineau Goals: Adam Janosik (4), Mitchell Porowski (2), Benjamin Laliberte (1), and Hubert Labrie (3)
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Marco Cousineau (5-1-0)
Losing Goaltender: GAT – Maxime Clermont (4-3-0)
News 88.9 Top Dog: Sea Dogs Fans (Honorable Mention to Nicholas Pard and Christian Morin)

THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Olympiques: 2/7, Sea Dogs: 3/9
Shots on Goal: Olympiques: 3+10+6=19, Sea Dogs: 9+9+15=33
Attendance: 4,628

SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Steven Anthony missed the game because of a groin injury and Kevin Gagne missed the tilt with a bad knee. Chuckie Schembri, Will Johnston, and Tyrone Sock were also scratched.

IT WAS OKAY
Just like in many games prior, penalties took the Saint John Sea Dogs off their game plan.

After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, penalties hurt the Sea Dogs in the second. The Olympiques scored two straight power play goals and one at even strength to tie the game. But Saint John battled back with Stanislav Galiev giving the Dogs back their lead.

"We played a good first period and we took a lot of penalties in the second period,'' said Galiev to the Telegraph-Journal, who tallied two goals and three assists. "In the third period, we played (well) again.''

Saint John, who have destroyed the ‘Piques this season, are now 4-0 against them and have outscored them 25-9. But the perfect record may have lead to overconfidence.

"We were too confident in the dressing room (after the first period), said center Michael Kirkpatrick. “They came out in the second and showed us they're not going to be pushed around.”

Saint John took back control in the third period, outshooting Gatineau 15-6.

With the victory, Saint John leads the series 1-0.

GAINING CONFIDENCE
Even if the second period events were due to penalties, the Olympiques finally showed that they can play against Saint John.

The ‘Piques were 0-3 against the Dogs entering the game and were shutout twice. But that was before the John Chabot coaching era.

"I think both teams would like to be able to dictate the game a little bit more and not have someone else take it out of our hands,'' Chabot said. "I'm looking forward to a better second game.

But Chabot’s defense made some fancy plays that almost proved costly. There were far too many passes between the defenseman under pressure around the goal. Chabot said that his team just can’t give an offensive driven horse like Saint John any more room to work with.

BIG NIGHT FOR THE BIG RUSSIAN
Stanislav Galiev did just as the fan made sign says: “Staz, just do it. Make it happen.”

Galiev scored twice and added three assists, setting a Sea Dogs team record for points in a playoff game by one player. In addition to the five point night, he took no penalties and was a +2.
LOVE THE LAPORTE
At 19:00 of the first period, Mike Thomas was thrown out after he received a five minute major penalty and game misconduct for kneeing. The play happened as Gatineau defenseman Hugo Laporte entered the Saint John zone, where he collided with the Sea Dogs captain.

Most fans were in disbelief as the play looked like an accident. Whether it was intentional or not, the New Maryland native took to his familiar possession has a pedestrian on the concourse.

Laporte sat on the ice for several minutes while clutching his knee before being helped off. He returned in the second period.

LAPORTE > ESPO
When Hugo Laporte returned he was booed every time he touched the puck, making many Sea Dogs fans have a flashback to another player who wore number seven.

The hated Angelo Esposito was booed every time he came to the Port City over his four years of QMJHL hockey. But it never really seemed to bother the Atlanta Thrashers prospect, unlike Laporte.

The Olympiques’ alternate captain was given a 10-minue misconduct after shoving an official. Harbour Station gave a standing ovation to the confused and stunned defenseman.

TIME FOR ACTION
We were just joking about the possibility of an Economic Action Plan sign going up at Harbour Station. But just beside Tim Horton’s on the concourse, what do we see other than an overly huge sign.

The sign is up because the Plan is paying for part of the score clock renovations. The same kind of sign was put up outside of a police station after they got new door knobs.

JURCO SCORES. WAIT, NO…
At 8:24 of the third period, Tomas Jurco should have had a goal but the officials got excited and blew the whistle way too quickly.

Jurco was furious over the call, and looked like he was going to pull a Jim Playfair on the ice.

SAME NEW LINE COMBO’S
Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant kept his line combinations the same as he did in game five of the first round. Nicholas Petersen stayed down on the second line while Tomas Jurco played wing on the top line with Stanislav Galiev and Mike Hoffman.

WELCOME BACK
Aiden Kelly returned from his concussion to play in his first career playoff game. Nicholas Pard also returned from his shoulder injury.

Kelly had a stat line of zero, while Pard a goal and was a +1.

POST-GAME HIGHLIGHTS


QUICK HITS
Bell Aliant FibreOp Playoff wrist bands were given out at the door again. One young fan was so upset over the Olympiques’ fourth goal he chucked his into the lower bowl… Saint John native Ben Miller was scratched for Gatineau… Christian Morin was paired up with Simon Despres on the backend… the French public address announcer (whose name we always forget) was pumped… former Sea Dog Philip Richer was in the house. “Who,” screamed one fan… the wave has been popular at Harbour Station this post-season, and fans had it going good again last night… Saint John finally broke the 4,300 attendance barrier. According to the Telegraph-Journal Friday, 3,400 tickets were sold as of Thursday, meaning over 1,200 tickets were sold on game day... Scott Briggs' game story appeared in today's Ottawa Citizen newspaper.