SEA DOGS – TITAN GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score: Saint John 1, Bathurst 5
Saint John Goals: Zach Phillips (7)
Bathurst Goals: Zach O’Brien (3), Radovan Pulis (2), Vincent Arseneau (4), Sebastien Trudeau (9), and David Gilbert (3)
Winning Goaltender: BAT – Olivier Roy
Losing Goaltender: SNB – Jacob DeSerres
THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Titan 0/4, Sea Dogs: 0/2
Shots on Goal: Titan: 13+5+6=24, Sea Dogs: 13+15+9=37
Length: 2:08
Attendance: 1,744
SCRATCHES
Steven Anthony returned to the Sea Dogs lineup so Jason Cameron was the odd man out. Defenseman Tyrone Sock was also a healthy scratch.
DOGS LOSE TO ROY, TITAN
A strong goaltending performance by Olivier Roy helped propel the Acadie-Bathurst Titan past the Saint John Sea Dogs by score of 5-1 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action last night at the KC Irving Regional Centre.
Roy stopped 36-of-37 shots to pick up the win. Many of his saves were of the unreal category, with his best coming late in the third on a nice move by Scott Oke. The Sea Dogs just couldn’t get anything past the netminder despite throwing just about everything at him.
Bathurst opened the scoring at 3:45 of the first when a pass from the corner found Zach O’Brien parked in front with a wide open cage. But Zach Phillips would respond with a wrist shot that beat Roy at 11:04 to tie the game at 1-1.
But the Titan got their lead back at 17:28 when Radovan Pulis beat Jacob DeSerres with a sharp angle shot. 23 seconds later Vincent Arseneau backhanded the disc up and over DeSerres to give the Titan a 3-1 lead.
A crucial moment on the game happened at 19:02 when Ryan Tesink was hauled down on a partial break. He was awarded a penalty shot but missed the net completely on his chance. By not scoring, the Titan kept much of the momentum going into intermission.
In the second, Saint John was the better team for most of the frame and outshot the Titan 15-5 in the process. But the Titan were very opportunistic, scoring in the final minute of the period in what could only be described as a deflating goal against for the Sea Dogs.
In the final stanza, David Gilbert scored on a solo rush as he went around DeSerres and deposited the disc into the cage to make it a 5-1 final.
DUBOIS WINS HUS DEBUT
Interim-head coach Eric Dubois recorded his first win as Titan head coach last night. Dubois was an assistant with the club until Ron Choules was fired on Thursday afternoon.
“They really played for Ron tonight,'' Dubois said to the Telegraph-Journal. “They were very affected this week by the departure of Ron. He was like a big brother to them."
NO MORE STREAKING
With the loss, the Sea Dogs’ five game winning streak came to an end. All five of the wins came on home ice with wins over Moncton, Montreal, Rimouski, Rouyn-Noranda, and Victoriaville.
FRANCHISE RECORD
Jacob DeSerres set a new Sea Dogs franchise record for the longest shutout streak by a debuting goalie in club history. The record now stands at 63 minutes and 45 seconds.
Karel St. Laurent held the previous record with a time 60 minutes and 54 seconds.
DeSerres recorded a shutout in his Sea Dogs debut last Saturday in a 2-0 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
ROAD WOES
The Sea Dogs have been downright dominant at Harbour Station this season. The same can’t said for their play on the road.
Saint John dropped their fourth road game of the year and now have a 2-3-0-1 record when being the visiting team. They have been outscored 21-18 in the process. One of their two road wins came via a shootout.
The Sea Dogs certainly have not been the same team away from Harbour Station.
IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME
After going 8-0-0-0 against their provincial rivals last season, the Sea Dogs finally fell to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
As News 88.9’s Tim Roszell pointed out in the dying minutes of the game, the Sea Dogs have not lost to the Titan since December 27, 2008 when they fell 4-3 in a shootout at the KC Irving Regional Centre. Only Steven Anthony, Mike Thomas, Simon Despres, and Michael Kirkpatrick are still with the team since that game.
Big stars like Alexi Dostoinov, Shea Kewin, and Josh Schram were also on the team. Chris DiDomenico was away at the World Juniors.
POOR DEFENSE
The Sea Dogs defense was one of the sore spots in the game. Although the big offensive guns were not firing as well as they often do, Saint John’s defensive game really struggled.
Bathurst had several breakaway chances and a number of odd man rushes. Many of the Titan’s scoring opportunities came after a Saint John turnover. Not one Saint John player had a plus rating while only three – the line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Zach Phillips, and Tomas Jurco – had a plus rating. Ryan Tesink and Scott Oke each had a zero rating.
THE CROWD
Bathurst fans are very close to extinction, but that didn’t stop them from performing the ‘Ole, Ole’ chant near the end of the game. Either way, there was the usual small crowd at the KC Irving Regional Centre.
@SJSeaDogsFan sent these two tweets in:
@station_nation There's even a bit of an echo here!OUT OF TOWN
@station_nation There is a section with a super fans sign and there are maybe 10 people in the whole super section
From The Canadian Press:
Elsewhere in the QMJHL it was: Victoriaville 6, Quebec 3; Cape Breton 7, Halifax 2; Chicoutimi 3, Baie-Comeau 1; Gatineau 4, Lewiston 3; Drummondville 5, Rimouski 1; Shawinigan 8, P.E.I. 1 and Val-d'Or 4, Rouyn-Noranda 2.
QUICK HITS
Vincent Arseneau was Vincent Arseneau all game… it was the first time in two games that the opposing team Saint John was facing recorded more than three shots on goal… the Sea Dogs will not play Bathurst again until next month, a month in which the two teams play each other three times… Jacob DeSerres played his first QMJHL road game and picked up his first loss. He made some nice saves… five of the eight QMJHL games last night were decided by more than three goals… to relive the game, check out the SN Live Blog replay… because the game was played in Bathurst, there are no video highlights or photo gallery.
NEXT GAME
Tonight, the Sea Dogs travel to Halifax to face the Herd at 7:00 pm.
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