BATHURST - It’s been a long time since the Saint John Sea Dogs fell below the .500 mark.
But with a 4-1 loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at the KC Irving Regional Centre on Friday night, Saint John fell a game below the mark. The team is now 1-2-0-0 in three pre-season games. The Titan improved to 3-0-0-0 and stay undefeated.
The two teams do battle again on Saturday at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station to complete the home-and-home series.
Bathurst opened the scoring at 6:48 of the opening frame. Sebastien Trudeau beat Sea Dogs net minder Frederic Piche on the power play to make it 1-0 for the home team.
Shots in the opening stanza were 14-9 Titan.
Gabriel Levesque quickly made it 2-0 Bathurst with his first of the pre-season at 1:05. Assists went to Olivier Hotte and Jonathan Lessard.
At 9:57 of the second period, Ian O’Brien entered the Sea Dogs goal to replace Piche. The newly acquired Piche, who was originally drafted by Bathurst, faced 23 shots with 11 of them being of the dangerous variety.
As the middle frame winded down, the Titan blew the game open with a third goal as David Gilbert recorded his first marker of exhibition play. Hotte added his second assist of the game on the goal.
Shots were 13-12 Titan in the second.
Jonathan Huberdeau finally broke the Titan’s steal wall to put the Dogs on the board. Huberdeau’s goal was the first allowed by Bathurst so far in the pre-season. The goal was originally awarded to Tyrone Sock but was quickly changed to an unassisted marker by Huberdeau.
But at 14:54, all hope of a Saint John comeback was lost when Sebastien Payette registered an unassisted goal to give Bathurst a 4-1 lead and win.
Shots in the third were 16-8 Saint John.
Former Cape Breton Screaming Eagles net minder Olivier Roy stopped 36 shots in the win. The combo of Piche and O’Brien stopped 31 shots.
Bathurst went 1/7 on the man advantage while Saint John was 0/6.
NOTES
Mike Thomas wore the captain’s “C” on his sweater. Stephen MacAulay and Danick Gauthier both wore an “A”… free agent invite Yohann Mathieu recorded a team high 14 penalty minutes on the night… the QMJHL website list Jacques Beaulieu as the team’s Head Coach… the attendance was 1,004. Last Sunday in Bathurst’s only previous home pre-season game, the Titan had just over 900 fans in attendance… Stanislav Galiev had a team high six shots… Huberdeau, Thomas, and Brock Morrison were the only players with a plus rating.
NEXT PRE-SEASON GAME
Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station vs Acadie Bathurst Titan.
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