SEA DOGS POST-GAME NOTEBOOK

SEA DOGS – TIGRES GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score: Victoriaville 1, Saint John 5
Saint John Goals: Nicholas Pard (3), Tomas Jurco (6), Stanislav Galiev (6), Danick Gauthier (3), and Jonathan Huberdeau (7)
Victoriaville Goals: Brandon Hynes (2)
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Marco Cousineau (10-1-0)
Losing Goaltender: VIC – Kevin Poulin (8-4-0)
News 88.9 Top Dog: Marco Cousineau

THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Tigres: 0/5, Sea Dogs: 3/11
Shots on Goal: Tigres: 9+9+15=33, Sea Dogs: 15+10+12=37
Attendance: 4,730

SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Kevin Gagne missed the game with a knee injury. Tyrone Sock, Aiden Kelly, Will Johnston, and Chuckie Schembri were also scratched.

DOMINATION ON ICE
It was a game – and a road trip – to forget for the Victoriaville Tigres.

The Tigres, who finished the regular season ranked 10th in the country, were outhit, outshot, and outplayed by the Saint John Sea Dogs in game two of their best-of-seven semi-final series. The Dogs now own a 2-0 series lead heading to Victoriaville on Tuesday.

"That was one of our best efforts of the entire year,” said Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant on the Sea Dogs’ Twitter page. “We're playing with a lot of confidence right now."

Saint John had control of the game from start to finish even though the Tigres jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 16:27 of the first period. Nicholas Pard tied the game a few minutes later to tie the tilt going to intermission.

In the second, it was all Saint John. The Sea Dogs scored three unanswered goals and added a fourth in the third to win the game 5-2.

IT AIN’T OVER YET
Saint John net minder Marco Cousineau told La Nouvelle/L’Union after the game that he believes the series is far from over with the next two (possibly three) games being played in Quebec.

The 20-year goaltender also looked back to a year ago when his Drummondville Voltigeurs were up 3-1 in their Presidents Cup Final series against Shawinigan. The Volts hung on to win in seven games.

Team president Wayne Long also told CTV News that Victoriaville is a very good team and that the series isn’t over until it’s over.

From CHSJ News:

They now own a 2-0 series lead in their best of seven semi-final Head Coach Gerard Gallant says this series isn't over by any stretch and expects Victoriaville to come out hard at their home barn next week.

THEY GOT THE JOB DONE
There can’t be too many facilities in a small province like New Brunswick that have the ability to transform from circus stage to a hockey rink in two hours.

The Harbour Station crew managed to get the job done. It certainly looked close though, with the goal pipes being drilled in and ice scrapped one last time just 15 minutes before warm-up.

The ice was surprisingly good despite it being covered all afternoon. The Sea Dogs gave a thank-you shout out to the Station crew during the game.

ME AND MY BALOON
All the craziness from the Exploratorium or whatever carried over into the hockey game. There were balloons in the rafters, balloons under the clock, and balloons just about everywhere.

One of the balloons fell to the ice for Pierre Durepos, who took it and skated off the ice. Durepos is so solid on the backend he even handles the pressure of a balloon battle well.

LEADS ARE OVERRATED
Victoriaville has taken the lead in both games by scoring the first goal but lost both. Going back to the Gatineau series, the Olympiques also scored two straight to open up game four but lost, meaning the Sea Dogs have allowed the first goal in their last three games. They are, however, 3-0 in those games.

THE MAGIC IS BACK
From the QMJHL website:

JONATHAN HUBERDEAU (SNB) – Saturday, he has scored his 10th goal, and has became only the 21st rookie player to reach this playoff plateau. Mathieu Perreault was the last rookie who scored 10 goals as a rookie. The record is 20 goals by a rookie in playoffs (Dale Hawerchuk, Cornwall, 1980).

Huberdeau has 10 goals in 11 playoff games after scoring 15 in 61 regular season games.

THE GOLDEN PAIR
The pairing of Yann Sauve and Nathan Beaulieu had an interesting game. Beaulieu had three assists and almost had a goal but Tomas Jurco tipped in the shot.

Sauve was under an intense microscope after doing just about everything wrong in game one. He had a much better game on the backend and recorded an assist.

DUPONT IS A FAILURE
Keven Dupont took four minor penalties during the 60-minute span hockey game. The 20-year old had 89 penalty minutes in the regular season. These eight penalty minutes were his first of the playoffs.

The Tigres took 11 penalties in the game with Saint John scoring on three. Victoriaville led the league in penalty killing efficiency in the regular season.

Our thanks to K.J. McLean for the photo.

FLYING HIGH
According to a Victoriaville newspaper, the Tigres will be flying back to Victoriaville. The announcement answers a lot of questions after the Tigres team bus was replaced with a less attractive normal carrier following the game.

GETTING CLOSER
Chris DiDomenico scored twice but it wasn’t enough as the Moncton Wildcats took a 2-0 series advantage with a 5-2 win in Drummondville.

“We want Moncton” chants began in the third period at Harbour Station on Saturday.

Not surprisingly, CBC New Brunswick is getting excited again.

SCOTTY MAC ATTACK
Alumnus Scott McDonald was at the game. He played in a whopping 21 career games with Saint John during the 2007-08 season. He recorded one assist in those games.

SEADOGSTV HIGHLIGHTS


QUICK HITS
The Sea Dogs have never lost a series when winning the second game… there was a loud cheer for the Montreal Canadiens score throughout the night. Those fans went to sleep crying… dancin’ Brendan and his buddy chilled down by going shirtless all game.

NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs head to Victoriaville for game three on Tuesday night. Game time is 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins.

Saint John has not lost a road game so far in the playoffs.