'CATS BACK IN CONTROL

STATION NATION RECAP
FINAL: Wildcats 5, Sea Dogs 1

SAINT JOHN – Following a confidence building win in Game Four on Friday night, the Saint John Sea Dogs were brought back down to earth.

The Moncton Wildcats defeated the Sea Dogs at Harbour Station on Saturday night by score of 5-1. With the victory, the Wildcats take a 3-2 series lead in the President’s Cup Final and have a chance to clinch their second cup win in franchise history on Monday.

Gabriel Bourque, Kelsey Tessier, and Daniel Pettersson scored singles for the ‘Cats. Devon MacAusland had a pair of markers.

The lone Saint John goal came from Nathan Beaulieu.

Moncton controlled most of the game until the third period, where Saint John fired 17 shots to Moncton’s three. The Wildcats still outshot the Dogs 35-31 in the game.

The Wildcats went 0/4 on the power play whole Saint John went 0/2.

Moncton had all the chances early in the first, including Marco Cousineau making huge pad save before robbing Mark Barberio.

Saint John slowly but surely gained some control for a few minutes. Danick Gauthier laid out Spencer Metcalf along the bench. Then Mike Thomas sent a shot wide followed by Stanislav Galiev being stopped on a one timer on the doorstep.

Moncton opened up the scoring at 9:25. Cousineau stopped the original shot but that caused a scramble in the crease. The puck squirted loose for Gabriel Bourque who netted his 19th of the post-season past the pad of the Saint John goaltender to make it 1-0.

Nathan Beaulieu got called for cross checking at 13:14 but the Sea Dogs would kill it off in excellent fashion.

The Wildcats doubled their lead with a minute to go the period. Barberio made a great play at the line to keep the puck in, batting the disc out of the air with a baseball swing. Daniel Petterson picked up the deflected puck in front and wired a shot over the glove of Cousineau to make it 2-0 ‘Cats after one.

Shots were 17-3 Moncton in the stanza.

In the second, the Wildcats put their power play to work with a Michael Kirkpatrick penalty carrying over from the first. Bourque had several chances on the man advantage, shooting the puck before being robbed by the blocker moments later.

Things went from bad to worse at 0:55 when Yann Sauve went off, giving the Wildcats a two man advantage. A Moncton player ripped a point shot off the post just prior to Bourque being denied once again.

Michael Kirkpatrick made a great no look pass from the corner to Nicholas Petersen in front halfway through the period. Petersen one timed the puck but Nicola Riopel made an unreal glove save to keep the Sea Dogs scoreless. The officials went upstairs to see if the puck crossed the line but was ruled a legal play.

Moncton made it 3-0 at 10:39 after Bourque sent a cross ice feed to Kelsey Tessier. Tessier fired the puck from the faceoff dot and beat Cousineau low glove side to extend the Wildcats’ lead.

Just a few minutes later at 13:59, a puck was thrown on net where Cousineau made the pad save. But the Saint John net minder could not control the puck, allowing Devon MacAusland to streak in and flip a shot of Cousineau’s pad to make it a 4-0 Moncton lead.

Saint John finally got some pressure on late in the period. Their best chance came when Thomas fed Gauthier on a two-on-one but was stopped by the pad of Riopel.

Shots in the middle frame were 15-11 Wildcats.

Metcalf headed to the box at 2:02 of the third. Saint John had some great pressure on the power play, with their best chance coming on a Mike Hoffman point shot.

When that penalty expired, the Dogs went back to the man advantage at 7:29 when Moncton was caught for too many men. But the Dogs could not get anything going on the power play and failed to register a goal.

Saint John finally got on the board at 11:55. Beaulieu carried the puck into the Moncton zone and blasted a slap shot that hit a stick on the way by. The shot fooled Riopel and went over his shoulder to make it 4-1.

But the ‘Cats got their four goal lead back at 17:17 when MacAusland registered his second of the game from a bad angle. The puck found its way over the shoulder of Cousineau to make it 5-1 for the visitors.

A big scrum ensued behind the Moncton net involving Will Johnston and Metcalf at 18:09. But nothing would come out of it other than minor penalties.

Shots on the third were 17-3 Saint John.

NEXT GAME: Game six is Monday night at 7:00 pm at the Moncton Coliseum.