SEA DOGS – MAINEIACS GAME AT A GLANCE
Final Score: Saint John 2, Lewiston 5
Saint John Goals: Simon Despres (9) and Jonathan Huberdeau (22)
Lewiston Goals: Antoine Houde-Caron (9), Olivier Dame-Malka (10), Samuel Henley (8), Etienne Brodeur (27), and Michael Chaput (9)
Winning Goaltender: LEW – Nicholas Champion
Losing Goaltender: SNB – Frederic Piche
News 88.9 Top Dog: Stanislav Galiev
THE NUMBERS
Power Play: MAINEiacs: 0/2, Sea Dogs: 1/3
Shots on Goal: MAINEics: 14+15+7=36, Sea Dogs: 11+17+18=46
Length: 2:12
Attendance: 2,007
SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
In the final five minutes of Wednesday’s game against the PEI Rocket and the Sea Dogs up by three, Danick Gauthier was given an instigator penalty after fighting Cody Linteau. Somewhere in that description, Gauthier broke a league rule and was forced to serve a one-game suspension last night in Lewiston.
Defenseman Tyrone Sock was the team’s other scratch. He was healthy according to News 88.9.
MAINEIACS DOWN SEA DOGS 5-2
A solid performance by the Lewiston Maineiacs was enough to defeat the Saint John Sea Dogs by score of 5-2 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Friday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in southern Maine.
Lewiston opened the scoring at 15:21 after an amazing save by Nicholas Champion. The play then carried up ice and Antoine Houde-Caron found himself on a breakaway, beating Sea Dogs goaltender Frederic Piche with a wrist shot to give the Maineiacs a 1-0 lead.
Just over a minute later at 16:23, an Olivier Dame-Malka point shot got through some traffic and beat Piche up high to make it 2-0 Lewiston after 20 minutes.
On a power play just 35 seconds into the second period, Simon Despres performed a wraparound and beat Nicholas Champion to put the Dogs back within one. At 15:14, the Maineiacs got their two goal lead back as the puck came out in front for Samuel Henley who beat Piche from a sharp angle to make it 3-1. Less than a minute later, Lewiston took a commanding lead on an Etienne Brodeur goal to make it 4-1.
In the third, Jonathan Huberdeau got the Dogs back in the game with a goal at 11:03. But the Maineiacs would respond at 14:47 as a cross crease pass found Michael Chaput to give Lewiston a 5-2 victory.
“That was a good team effort,” said Lewiston Head coach Jean-Francois Houle to the Maine Hockey Journal. “Everybody moved their feet and everybody worked hard. Champion again made some huge key saves.”
NO MORE STREAKING
With the loss, Saint John suffered their first regulation loss since October 22 in Bathurst, a run that featured 17 games. The Sea Dogs won 16 of the 17 contests with their only loss coming via a shootout.
Saint John also had their 10-game winning streak snapped. The Sea Dogs are now tied with the Quebec Remparts and Lewiston Maineiacs for the longest winning streaks so far this season.
On the other side, Lewiston ended a four-game losing skid that featured a 6-2 loss last Friday at Harbour Station.
The Maineiacs played very well in this game and were worthy of the victory, but if not for their goaltender Nicholas Champion, the game could have been much closer.
Champion was tremendous in net, making 44 saves on the night. His saves were also very timely and often helped Lewiston get some scoring chances at the other end. That was seen on the first period when Champion robbed Stanislav Galiev, a save that ultimately resulted in Antoine Houde-Caron scoring on a breakaway.
“It was a really good feeling when I got up from that (save) and saw that they were on a breakaway and they scored,” said Champion to the Maine Hockey Journal who also received an assist on the play.
Champion was in net last Friday when the Maineiacs fell 6-2 in Saint John.
His efforts last night against the nation’s No. 1 squad earned him Buzzing The Net first star honours.
BEING NO. 1
As the Sea Dogs learned last season, whether it be a top end team like Lewiston or the dreadful Baie-Comeau Drakkar, being ranked No. 1 in the country means that the opposing team is always going to bring their ‘A’ game.
"They played a playoff-type game," Saint John coach Gerard Gallant said to the Lewiston Sun Journal. "We're the No. 1 team in the country right now, and you get the target on you because of it. They played hard, they had 20 guys competing real hard both ways."
The Sea Dogs played well but simply missed on several opportunities early in the game that could have given them a serious push forward in the game. Then team definitely looked better than they had in their two previous games.
Vancouver Canucks prospect Steven Anthony looked as though he hurt his hand blocking a shot just prior to the second Maineiacs goal. He was not on the Sea Dogs’ bench in the second or third period.
Anthony has been one of Saint John’s best players over the past few games and has been on a line with Zach Phillips and Jonathan Huberdeau. With Danick Gauthier already out of the lineup, the lines were a tad messy for the remainder of the game.
Here are how the lines looked at the start of the game via Lewiston Sun Journal reporter Justin Pelletier on Twitter:
Galiev-Kirkpatrick-JurcoPAPARAZZI
Huberdeau-Phillips-Anthony
MacAulay-Kelly-Thomas
Oke-Cameron-Tesink
Despres-Cloutier
Beaulieu-Durepos
Gagne-Bourret
Basically following every scoring chance, a bright camera flash went off. Apparently, Maineiacs photographer Ron Morin (who takes some solid pictures) spends most of the night in the catwalk above the ice taking shots, causing the flash.
Nathan Fournier from the World of Junior Hockey and Maine Hockey Journal tweeted this video to us during the game:
NO KABANOV
Not so surprisingly, Kirill Kabanov did not play in this match because of an injury. According to Tim Roszell of News 88.9, he has a concussion. Kabanov did not play last week against Saint John either.
KIRKPATRICK STILL MAKING HISTORY
With an assist on Simon Despres’ second period goal, Michael Kirkpatrick took sole possession of second place in the Sea Dogs’ all-time career point getters list with his 205th point, pulling ahead of Chris DiDomenico.
Ryan Sparling currently holds the franchise record with 217 career points over his four year stint with the club. Kirkpatrick should be able to break the record over the next few weeks.
BIG HORSE TO THE BIG CITY
Simon Despres played what could be his final game with the Sea Dogs for some time as he travels to Toronto to take part in Hockey Canada’s world junior selection camp.
The players are expected to arrive for the camp today
QUICK HITS
The Montreal Juniors failed to gain any ground on the Sea Dogs last night as they lost to the Shawinigan Cataractes… the Sea Dogs are now 8-3-0-0 when outshooting an opponent on the road. Overall, they are 21-3-0-1 when outshooting an opponent… despite the Sea Dogs getting a power play goal, Lewiston’s penalty kill looks quite good… Lewiston has three players with the first name Samuel in Samuel Henley, Samuel Finn, and Samuel Carrier... in all four of Saint John's regulation loses this season, they have scored only one goal in each.
QMJHL Score Sheet | SN Recap | Lewiston Sun Journal Recap | Maine Hockey Journal Recap | Sea Dogs Website Recap | SN Live Blog Replay
OUT OF TOWN
From The Canadian Press:
Elsewhere in the QMJHL it was: Shawinigan 3, Montreal 2; Chicoutimi 2 Acadie-Bathurst 1; Drummondville 8 Rouyn-Noranda 3; Victoriaville 4 Gatineau 3 and Rimouski 5 Val-d'Or 4.
NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs are back at Harbour Station Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm when they host the
Photo Credits: Ron Morin/Lewiston MAINEiacs, Ron Morin/Lewiston MAINEiacs, Marc Henwood/Station Nation
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