FULL RECAP
DOGS WIN AGAIN
SYDNEY, NS – The Saint John Sea Dogs keep on rolling as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League post-season is less than two weeks away.
The Sea Dogs upended the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 4-1 Sunday afternoon at Centre 200, giving them their sixth straight win. It wasn’t the greatest, most exciting game of the season but it was pretty much what was expected from the Dogs on the tail end of a long road trip and playing one of the worst teams in the league in an afternoon contest.
"We didn't have the best start,” said Sea Dogs captain Mike Thomas to the Telegraph-Journal. “We got better as the game progressed, but we have to play better than that.''
“It wasn’t our best game, but we have been on two road trips now and three games in four nights is pretty hard,” said Michael Kirkpatrick to the Cape Breton Post.
“There is a lot of travel in between and we didn’t get much rest last night so it wasn’t our best game, but we’ll take the two points.”
The Sea Dogs outshot the Eagles 12-7 in the first period but could only beat Cape Breton goaltender Andrew Hayes once. Aidan Kelly opened the scoring at 7:38 to cap off what was a solid period for the fourth line.
In the second, Saint John would connect twice. Stanislav Galiev made it a 2-0 game at 13:44. Then, while shorthanded, Alexandre Beauregard made some nice moves to get in front and wire one past Hayes to give the Dogs a 3-0 lead.
In the third, the Eagles would find the cage at 14:35. Denis Kindl was on a mission, making some moves to get around a couple of Saint John players and then beating Sea Dogs goaltender Mathieu Corbeil with a backhander to make it a 3-1 game.
But Jonathan Huberdeau would put the match away with seven seconds remaining in the contest with an empty netter to give the visitors a 4-1 win.
THE NUMBERS
Saint John, Sea Dogs 4 at Cape Breton, Screaming Eagles 1 - Status FinalSAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Sunday, March 13, 2011 - Centre 200
Saint John 1 2 1 - 4
Cape Breton 0 0 1 - 1
1st Game Period-1, Saint John, Kelly 5 (Tesink, Oke), 7:38. Penalties-Tesink Snb (roughing), 3:32; Leduc Cap (roughing), 3:32; Gélinas Snb (high-sticking), 19:28.
2nd Game Period-2, Saint John, Galiev 34 (Gagné, Anthony), 13:44. 3, Saint John, Beauregard 10 (Thomas), 16:28 (sh). Penalties-Potvin Cap (high-sticking), 11:14; served by Oke Snb (too many men on the ice), 14:57.
3rd Game Period-4, Cape Breton, Kindl 22 (Hrabarenka, Parker), 14:35. 5, Saint John, Huberdeau 41 (Thomas), 19:53 (pp en). Penalties-Huberdeau Snb (checking from behind), 0:22; Thomas Snb (roughing), 6:49; Kindl Cap (slashing), 12:19; Potvin Cap (tripping), 19:03; Beaulieu Snb (unsportmanlike conduct - misconduct), 19:53; Hrabarenka Cap (unsportmanlike conduct - misconduct), 19:53.
Shots on Goal-Saint John 34. Cape Breton 20.
Power Play Opportunities-Saint John 1 of 3; Cape Breton 0 of 4.
Goalies-Saint John, Corbeil-Thériault 19-16-1-1 (20 shots-19 saves). Cape Breton, Hayes 12-21-1-3 (33 shots-30 saves).
A-3,375
Referees-Thane Arsenault (9), Tim Hamel (19).
Linesmen-Peter Sheppard (59), Jackson Doughart (39).
Forward Stephen MacAulay was ill and did not play while defenseman Jason Seed has gone home for a few days following a death in his family. Jason Cameron was a healthy scratch.
CHASING HISTORY
The win puts the Sea Dogs that much closer to QMJHL history. With an unreal record of 56-6-1-2, Saint John can surpass the all-time QMJHL record for wins in a season.
The Dogs are two wins short of tying the record of 58 victories established by the Sorel Eperviers in 1973-74 and matched by the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs in 1978-79.
Saint John will have an opportunity to break that record with three games remaining on their schedule. The team travels to Charlottetown on Wednesday to face the PEI Rocket and then hosts the Screaming Eagles Friday and the Rocket on Sunday.
Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant isn’t too concerned about meeting the mark.
"We have three games to play and we're going to work hard and get ready for the playoffs,'' Gallant told the Telegraph-Journal.
"If the record happens to be there, then fine, but that's not a (concern) for me.''
If the Dogs can set the record, it would also tie them for second in the Canadian Hockey League wins list, tying them with the 2005 Memorial Cup winning London Kinghts.
HUBERDEAU MAKES HISTORY
Jonathan Huberdeau became the first Sea Dog in franchise history to record 100 points in a season on Sunday afternoon. Huberdeau scored into an empty net with seven seconds remaining in the game to get the 100th point and his 41st goal of the season.
The top-prospect for the upcoming National Hockey League Entry Draft joins Gatineau’s Philip-Michael Devos and Bathurst’s Gabriel Levesque as the only players to record 100 points so far this season as the 2010-11 campaign enters its final week.
Huberdeau was featured on NHL.com today where he talked about being ranked fourth in North America by Central Scouting for the 2011 draft.
"I think (being No. 4) surprised me a little bit, but I don't want to be cocky about it," Huberdeau said. "I may be in the top four, but there are a lot of good players after me. I'm going to keep playing the way I've been playing since the beginning of the season, and then we'll see what happens in June."
CORBEIL STARTS AGAIN
With Jacob DeSerres recovering from the flu, goaltender Mathieu Corbeil made his third straight start in goal. He is the first netminder on the Sea Dogs roster to start three consecutive games this season.
Corbeil played all three games on Saint John’s road trip, allowing five goals on 69 shots.
The Columbus Blue Jackets was fairly solid again on Sunday and continues to improve with every game.
KINDL GOAL
It sounded like Denis Kindl scored a beautiful goal against Saint John on Sunday. Unfortunately, the Telus Webcast operator was snoozing and barely captured any of the play.
We doubt this footage will be used to promote the webcast packages for next season.
PLAYOFF PREVIEW
The Eagles loss guaranteed that Cape Breton and Saint John will meet in the first round of the playoffs which begins Friday, March 25 at Harbour Station.
In the season series, Saint John has a 6-1-0-0 record. These two teams will meet for the final time this regular season on Friday at the Station.
If the first four games are able to be scheduled within the month of March, the Dogs and Eagles will have played each other seven times this month.
DUROCHER SPEAKS
Despite losing 4-1 and falling to 1-6-0-0 in the season series, only recording 20 shots on goal, and being outscored 32-4 over their past five games, Eagles head coach Mario Durocher believes in his team.
“I think we just showed them we can play against those guys,” said Cape Breton coach and general manager Mario Durocher following the game to the CB Post.
“We struggled on the powerplay in the second period and we lost our focus and then they scored two goals pretty quick. And that’s hockey. If you had a bad shift, you have to bounce back right away. If you give them one inch they are going to take it.”
QUICK HITS
Mike Thomas was the News 88.9 Top Dog… Saint John closes out the regular season at Centre 200 with a 3-1-0-0 record… this was Cape Breton’s final regular season home game… the Eagles wore green, Irish themed jerseys. Raffle tickets were sold during the game and the winners received their sweaters at ice level following the match. All proceeds went to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation… Eric Gelinas and Michael Kirkpatrick each had a team high four shots on goal… Denis Kindl had a team high four shots for the Eagles… Gelinas had five hits for Saint John… Spencer Metcalf and Loic Leduc had three hits for Cape Breton… Mike Thomas had two assists... pictures of the Eagles’ green jersey can be viewed here… to relive the match, check out the SN Live Blog Replay.
RANDON THOUGHTS
- Cape Breton’s green jerseys were nicer than their third jerseys.
- Telus sucks.
NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs play their final road game of the regular season Wednesday night in Charlottetown against the PEI Rocket at 7:00 pm in a makeup match.
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