DOGS CLOSE PRE-SEASON WITH 5-1 LOSS

FINAL: Sea Dogs 1, Rocket 5

CHARLOTTETOWN - The Saint John Sea Dogs dropped their final game of the 2010 Quebec Major Hockey League pre-season 5-1 in Charlottetown against the PEI Rocket.

With the loss, Saint John finishes the pre-season with a 2-4-0-0 record and a 0-3-0-0 record on the road.

A round of fisticuffs started off the game. At 3:03 of the first period, Mike Thomas and Marshall Worden dropped the gloves with each receiving a five minute major penalty.

“Thomas clearly won, although one of Worden's better efforts,” @nolman29 – who operates the Rocket Twitter page - tells Station Nation.

Jordan Escott opened the scoring at 9:19 with an unassisted marker, giving the home side a 1-0 lead.

The Sea Dogs’ Michael Kirkpatrick would tie the game at 14:34 with assists going to Stanislav Galiev and Nathan Beaulieu. It was the center’s first goal of exhibition play.

The Rocket would regain their one goal lead at 17:31 with Matthew Hobbs recording his first marker of the pre-season. Helpers on the power play goal were given to Escott and import Adam Polasek.

Shots in the opening 20-minutes were 12-8 in favour of the home side.

In the second, PEI took a two goal lead at 2:20 with Victor Provencher beating Karel St. Laurent in the Sea Dogs’ crease. Assists were awarded to Josh Currie and Ben Duffy.

Shots in the middle stanza were 14-13 Sea Dogs.

The Rocket added to their lead at 6:19 of the third period. Philippe Paradis registered his first of the pre-season to give the home side a commanding 4-1 lead. Escott recorded his third point of the game on the goal with the other helper going to former Victoriaville Tigre Andrej Nestrasil.

PEI finished off the scoring at 11:35 with Currie and Jean-Laurence Beauchemin assisting on Duffy’s second of exhibition play.

Shots were 10-8 Saint John in the third.

St. Laurent fell to 1-1 in exhibition play, stopping 28 of 33 shots. 14 of those shots were considered dangerous.

Rocket net minder Evan Mosher improved to 2-0, stopping 31 of 32 shots on the night. 15 of the pucks thrown his way were awarded dangerous status.

PEI was 1/4 on the power play while Saint John went 0/2.

NOTES
This was the Rocket’s first pre-season game at the Charlottetown Civic Centre this year… Kevin Gagne had a team high seven shots on goal… Jonathan Huberdeau is the only Sea Dog listed with a plus rating at plus-one… these two teams meet again on September 10 at Harbour Station for their season openers.

NEXT GAME
Saint John opens up the 2010-11 regular season next Friday, September 10 at 7:30 pm against the PEI Rocket at Harbour Station. Tickets are now on-sale and are still available. Fans are asked to be in their seats early for pre-game festivities.