GAME DAY
Saint John Sea Dogs vs Victoriaville Tigres
Today, February 26, 2011, 5:00 pm
Colisee Desjardins
PREVIEW
VICTORIAVILLE, Que. – The Saint John Sea Dogs continue their road trip this afternoon as they take on the Victoriaville Tigres the Desjardins Colisee. Game time is 5:00 pm AST (4:55, News 88.9; 4:45, SN Live Blog).
Saint John has been red hot over that past couple of months but there are still some things that could be improved for the playoffs. The Sea Dogs took plenty of penalties last night and also seemed to struggle closing out the win in the third period. With 10 games left on the schedule, now is the time to change these habits.
The Tigres enter today’s match with a record of 32-24-1-3 and sit ninth overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League standings. With eight games to go, they are still in battle for playoff positioning. If the playoffs started today, they’d face the Lewiston MAINEiacs in the dreaded eight vs nine spot.
Victoriaville is 6-4-0-0 in their last 10 games and have won two straight.
These two teams met in last year’s semi-finals of course. The memorable series saw Saint John prevail in six games. Since then, the two have played each other only once and that came way back on October 17 at Harbour Station with the Sea Dogs winning 4-2.
HEAD-TO-HEAD NUMBERS
| Saint John | Victoriaville | |
| Record | 50-5-1-2 (1st Maritimes) | 32-24-1-3 (3rd Telus East) |
| Home Record | - - - | 15-13-0-2 |
| Road Record | 22-5-0-1 | - - - |
| Streak | 21-0-1-0 | 2-0-0-0 |
| Last 10 | 10-0-0-0 | 6-4-0-0 |
| Goals For | 277 | 231 |
| Goals Against | 143 | 214 |
| Overall PP | 24.7% (6th) | 20.7% (11th) |
| Home PP | - - - | 17.1% (13th) |
| Road PP | 28.4% (2nd) | - - - |
| Overall PK | 82.8% (2nd) | 76.2% (15th) |
| Home PK | - - - | 75.2% (15th) |
| Road PK | 77.3% (11th) | - - - |
| PIM/GAME | 13.3 (13th) | 13.8 (11th) |
NOTES: The Sea Dogs are led offensively by 17-year old Jonathan Huberdeau who has 89 points in 57 games. He had two assists last night… Huberdeau leads the club in goals with 36. Zack Phillips, who scored last night, is second with 33… Huberdeau also leads the team in assists with 53. Phillips is second with 50… Phillips is fifth in the league in power play goals with 13… Phillips is fourth in game winning goals with seven… Phillips is sixth in first goals scored with seven… Tomas Jurco is tied for league lead in insurance goals with seven… Huberdeau is a league best +53… nine of the top 20 players in the plus/minus department play for Saint John… Ryan Tesink is 11th in rookie scoring with 28 points in 50 games. He has been scratched the last two games… Simon Despres is seventh in shorthanded assists with two… Michael Kirkpatrick is second in the league in dangerous shot taken with 167… Eric Gelinas is third amongst defenseman in shots taken this season with 170. Nathan Beaulieu is fourth with 164… Gabriel Bourret has the third highest shooting percentage amongst defenseman with 13.8% rating. He has scored eight goals on just 58 shots… 35-2-0-1 when scoring first… 9-1-0-1 against the Telus East Division this season. The Sea Dogs lost in regulation to the Lewiston Maineiacs and fell in a shootout against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens… have a league high 4.78 goals per game average… have a league low 2.47 goals against per game average… have a league high 36.71 shots per game average… owners of the fifth lowest shots against per game average at 27.17… Stanislav Galiev has now scored in five straight games… Jonathan Huberdeau has an assist in four straight games… Michael Kirkpatrick has a goal in four straight road games… Zack Phillips has an assist in 11 straight road games… Jonathan Huberdeau has a point in 10 straight road games. Phillips has a point in 11 straight road contests.
PROBABLE STARTER: Mathieu Corbeil willm likely get the start in goal. He has a record of 15-15-1-1, a goals against average of 3.29, and a save percentage of 0.876. Since joining Saint John, the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect has a record of 8-0-1-0, a GAA of 2.19, and a SV% of 0.902.
LAST GAME: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 4-3 win in Gatineau last night. Michael Kirkpatrick, Zack Phillips, Nathan Beaulieu, and Stanislav Galiev all scored for Saint John. Jonathan Huberdeau added two assists in the victory. Jacob DeSerres was extremely solid in net.
NOTES: The Tigres are led offensively by Philippe Maillet and Yanni Gourde who each have 64 points on the year. The team’s point production has taken a bit of a dip after they traded QMJHL leading scorer Philip-Michael Devos to Gatineau at the deadline… Newfoundlander Bandon Hynes has a team high 31 goals in 58 games… Phillip Danault, who played in the CHL Top Prospects Game, has a team high 41 assists in 57 games… Gourde is a team high plus-33… Danault ranks 14th overall in the QMJHL with 41 assists… Guillaume Goulet is eighth in power play goals with 11… Danault is fifth in shorthanded goals with five… Goulet is tenth in first goals with six… Yannick Dube is 2-for-2 in shootouts… Danault is fourth in shorthanded assists with three… Hynes leads the league in total shots with 278… defenseman Samuel Groulx has the highest shootout percentage among defenseman with a rating of 0.667… 19-5-1-1 when scoring first… 7-6-0-0 against the Maritimes Division this season… have scored seven shorthanded goals on home ice this season, good for second among home teams… averaging 3.85 goals per game, good for fifth overall… averaging 3.57 goals against per game, good for 11th overall… averaging 31.28 shots per game, good for sixth in the league… allowing 30.40 shots against per game which places them 10th in the league.
PROBABLE STARTER: Antonio Mastropietro will start in goal this afternoon for Victoriaville. He has a record of 17-14-1-2, a goals against average of 3.13, and a save percentage of 0.894.
LAST GAME: The Tigres are coming off a huge 5-4 shootout win against the Quebec Remparts last night at Pepsi Colisee. Yannick Dube, Yanni Gourde, Brandon Hynes, and Guillaume Naud all scored in regulation. Goaltender David Honzik stopped all three Rempart shooters in the breakaway contest while Samuel Groulx scored the winner in the last round.
Best Tigres Video We Could Find: Antonio Mastropietro is a man of few words.
TOP PROSPECTS
This game features some of the QMJHL’s top prospects for the upcoming National Hockey League Entry Draft. The two teams combined feature six players who participated in the CHL/NHL Top Prospect Game in Toronto in January.
Victoriaville features forward Phillip Danault and goaltender David Honzik while Saint John features forwards Zack Phillips, Jonathan Huberdeau, Tomas Jurco, and defenseman Nathan Beaulieu.
Jurco, Danualt, and Honzik all played for Team Cherry.
LONG TIME AWAY
This is the Tigres first home game since February 13, a 4-3 loss against Shawinigan. They have played four games since then, going 3-1-0-0 over that span.
The stretch featured a 7-1 win in Moncton and a 7-1 loss in Bathurst.
BROKEN
Mike Hoffman was not a fan of the Colisee Desjardins glass in last year's playoff series.
OTHER GAMES TODAY
Chicoutimi at Baie-Comeau - 4:00 PM EST
Gatineau at Shawinigan - 4:00 PM EST
Halifax at Cape Breton - 7:00 PM AST
Rimouski at Québec - 7:00 PM EST
Acadie-Bathurst at Val-d'Or - 7:00 PM EST
THE RINK
Venue: Desjardins Colisee
Capacity: 2,933
Average Attendance: 2,475
QMJHL Arena Guide
MEDIA GUIDE
Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM
Live Web Feed: Telus
Television: None
Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation
Live Coverage: Follow Station Nation on Twitter (www.twitter.com/station_nation) for live in game coverage. All tweets will also appear in the SN Live Blog that is posted on this site.
AFTER THE BUZZER
The Sea Dogs close out their road trip tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 pm in Shawinigan.
Photo Credits: Marc Henwood/Station Nation, no clue, Telegraph-Journal, Telus, Google
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