FINAL: Titan 0, Sea Dogs 2
SAINT JOHN - On the strength of two stellar goaltending performances, the Saint John Sea Dogs downed the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-0 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season action on Saturday night at Harbour Station.
Karel St. Laurent stopped 13 shots while former Titan goaltender Frederic Piche deflected 12 pucks to give the combo a shutout victory.
After a back-and-forth first few minutes, Mike Thomas took over by crushing Jeremie Blain into the end boards. Thomas received a penalty while Blain slowly skated off. The Dogs would kill it off.
The Saint John captain would be awarded another penalty at 14:48, this time for catching a Titan player in the face with the blade of his stick. Like the first, his team would kill it off.
At 18:52 of the opening frame, Saint John opened up the scoring. Pierre Durepos was given the puck just above the lip of the crease, allowing the second year defenseman to wire a low wrist shot past the blocker of Titan goaltender Dereck Tait.
That would be all for scoring in the first period. Shots were 13-8 in favour of the home side.
The most eventful play in the middle stanza took place around the seven minute mark with Jonathan Lessard being denied on a breakaway by St. Laurent. Piche would come in to replace the overage net minder at 12:31.
Shots were six apiece in the second frame.
In the third and with the Sea Dogs on a four-on-three power play, Tait found himself laying on the ice at one side of the net while the puck was located at the other. Stanislav Galiev found the loose disc and simply inserted it into the empty cage to give his squad an insurance marker with 13:32 to go in the game.
Saint John would hang on to take the game 2-0. Shots were 11-5 Titan in the final period of action.
Bathurst went 0/8 on the man advantage while Saint John went 1/8.
“Bathurst’s one of our biggest rivals so any time we can beat them we’re happy,” said Durepos after the game to the Sea Dogs' official Twitter page.
A small but dedicated group of 1,950 fans watched the game on a beautiful August day in the Port City.
NOTES: See Station Nation Postscript tomorrow.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs wrap up their pre-season home schedule with a 7:00 pm game this Wednesday at Harbour Station against the Halifax Mooseheads.
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