The Baie-Comeau Drakkar, who sit in 17th place in the 18-team Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, roll into town for a pair of games beginning tonight at 7pm and the other going down at 4pm on Sunday. The Drakkar are currently on a Maritime road trip as they played in Cape Breton Wednesday, Halifax Friday, and now are in Saint John for a pair of games against the top-ranked team in Canada.
The Drakkar, 7-35-5-4, are still looking for their first win of the trip - and wins have not come easy for Baie-Comeau this season. This is a team that lost 25 consecutive games earlier in the year and has won only seven of their 51 games this season.
This weekend’s doubleheader certainly seems like a "David vs Goliath" matchup. But you have to give the Drakkar some credit going in as they gave the Sea Dogs a bit of a scare last Friday at the Henry Leonard Centre, a game that saw Saint John squeak out a 3-2 win.
"You have to give them credit,'' said Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant about the Drakkar in yesterday’s Telegraph-Journal. "They worked very hard and they're a lot different team than they were 20 games ago. They've played against some tough teams and they've battled.”
Baie-Comeau is led offensively by Raphael Bussieres who has 14 goals and 21 assists in 50 games this season. Lukas Cingel is a close second with 34 points on the year, sitting just an assist back of matching Bussieres’ totals.
Those names may not be well known to Saint John fans, but defenseman Hugo Laporte’s name is quite well known by the Harbour Station faithful. Laporte has been the subject of many boos over the past year following his acting display against Saint John in 2010 President’s Cup quarter-finals. Laporte has been booed heavily ever since the incident.
The overage defenseman has made an appearance already this season at Harbour Station, but thanks to the Gatineau Olympiques shipping him to Baie-Comeau in a transaction during the holiday trading period, he is expected to play twice more in southwestern New Brunswick this season.
The Sea Dogs, 39-5-1-2, will enter play this weekend looking to capture their 40th win of the season and keep their undefeated-in-regulation-at-home record intact.
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