DOGS SHOOT DOWN HERD

SN RECAP
FINAL: Mooseheads 1, Sea Dogs 7

SAINT JOHN – Zach Phillips seems to like scoring in pairs.

For the third straight game, Phillips scored two goals for the Saint John Sea Dogs. His two markers helped guide Saint John to a 7-1 victory over the Halifax Mooseheads on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action.

Nathan Beaulieu, Tomas Jurco, Jonathan Huberdeau, Stanislav Galiev, and Scott Oke also scored. Huberdeau added three assists. Frederic Piche played well in the Sea Dogs crease, stopping 33 shots and earning third star honours.

Although the score was lopsided, Halifax played well at times and forced Piche to make some good stops. But Saint John was just too much for the young Mooseheads team that is now 0-4 against the Sea Dogs this season.

Francis Turbide scored the lone Moose goal. Mathieu Corbeil didn’t play all that bad, stopping 29 shots and allowing seven goals.

FIRST PERIOD
Just 34 seconds into the game, Jonathan Huberdeau stole the puck from a Moosehead at the blue line and sent a pass ahead to Zach Phillips. The 18-year old had a small breakaway and beat Mathieu Corbeil upstairs to make it a 1-0 game.

The Sea Dogs kept coming after that. Ryan Tesink made some great moves in the faceoff circle to get around his man before backhanding a shot on goal that was nicely stopped by Corbeil. Then Huberdeau had a good chance as he cut into the crease area but was denied.

After Simon Despres dropped Charles Bety with a big hit in the neutral zone, Danick Gauthier gave a nice feed ahead to Mike Thomas who came in close but was stopped by a focused Corbeil.

Saint John went to the power play at 9:01 as Alex Souligny was called for interference. The Sea Dogs had nothing to show for on the man advantage though. Frederic Piche was forced to make a nice save during the two minute span when Alex Lemieux was left alone and wristed a shot off the glove of the Sea Dogs ‘tender.

The Dogs had another power play opportunity at 12:39 when Darcy Ashley threw the puck out of play. A shot caused a scrum in the crease area before the puck squirted loose to the bottom of the faceoff circle. Phillips crept in from the side boards and wristed a shot past Corbeil to double Saint John’s lead.

At 19:00, a big scrum in front of Corbeil’s crease caused some rough stuff with Despres and Trey Lewis getting matching roughing penalties.

Shots in the opening 20-minutes were 17-6 Saint John.

SECOND PERIOD
Stanislav Galiev was called for tripping 0:23. Despres had a decent chance shorthanded, breaking in one-on-three, but was stopped by Corbeil. After the penalty expired, Andrew Ryan had a short break for the Herd but was denied by a poke checking Piche.

Ryan took a penalty after his offensive chance, heading to the box for slashing at 3:22. At 3:28, Galiev headed to the box again and then Steve Gillard was called. On a four-on-three power play, Nathan Beaulieu ripped a one timer five-hole on Corbeil to give Saint John a 3-0 lead.

After a good Mooseheads scoring chance, it was them taking a penalty after Travis Randell interfered with Galiev. Francis Turbide had a good shorthanded chance as he cut through the crease but was denied by the pad of Piche.

Halifax kept some pressure on with impressive rookie defenseman Simon Desmarais firing a point shot into the glove of the Sea Dogs goaltender.

After Halifax failed to score on two power play opportunities, Huberdeau fed a streaking Jurco with a beautiful cross crease pass. Jurco had an open cage and one timed the puck to make it a 4-0 Sea Dogs lead.

Gabriel Bourret was called for slashing at 18:28. While shorthanded, Danick Gauthier broke loose on a breakaway but was stopped by the pad of Corbeil.

Shots in the second stanza were 12-8 in favour of the visitors.

THIRD PERIOD
Halifax got on the board at 2:31 of the third period. Turbide fired a shot that was stopped by Piche but he could not control the rebound. Turbide picked up his own rebound to make it a 4-1 game.

But at 2:56, Saint John went back to the power play after Konrad Abeltshauser hooked Jurco on a good scoring chance. On the power play, Kevin Gagne sent the puck down low to Huberdeau from the point. Huberdeau stood at the goal line and weaved his way around Corbeil to make it a 5-1 game.

Aidan Kelly then passed to Jason Cameron in front moments later but was stoned by Corbeil.

At 9:53, Ryan Tesink dropped the puck for Galiev who was crossing the line. The Russian slapped the puck from the top of the circle up high on Corbeil to make it a 6-1 Sea Dogs lead.

Not long after at 12:31, Scott Oke made it a 7-1 game when he beat the Mooseheads goaltender in close.

Galiev took his third penalty of the game at 15:19 when he was called for tripping. But it was all Saint John during the span. Mike Thomas led a two-on-one but chose to keep the puck and fire it right on Corbeil for the easy stop. Soon after, Oke fed Bourret who went in and tried to go around Corbeil. Bourret chose to center for Oke but was denied by a nice sprawling save by the Herd netminder.

That would be all as Saint John took the contest 7-1.

Shots in the third were 16-11 Halifax.

The Sea Dogs went 3/6 on the power play while the Mooseheads went 0/5.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow on SN.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst Wednesday to face the Titan at 7:30 pm.