GAME DAY
Game Three, Round Three – President’s Cup Playoffs
Saint John Sea Dogs vs Lewiston MAINEiacs
Tonight, April 26, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Androscoggin Bank Colisee
PREVIEW
A Sea Dogs win will give them a stranglehold on the series while a Maineiacs victory will make things little bit more interesting. The winner of this game could carry a lot of the momentum moving forward.
Saint John battled back to take Game One by score of 5-4 in overtime on Friday at Harbour Station. Game Two was a much better game for the Sea Dogs as they beat the visitors 4-1 thanks in most part to three goals on the same power play.
The Sea Dogs played a solid game on Saturday and they will look for a similar outing tonight. The top-ranked team in Canada sat back a little bit in the third period of Game Two, but the first two periods were typical Sea Dogs hockey.
Lewiston hasn’t played horribly in this series and they certainly have the ability to comeback from two games down. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s lone American franchise had the Sea Dogs on the ropes in Game One but weren’t able to pull it off. They didn’t play all that bad in Game Two, either, but their penalty woes got them in trouble.
Now on home ice, the Maineiacs will look to do what they have done once already this season – defeat the Sea Dogs at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Back on December 10, the Maineiacs beat Saint John 5-2 to give the Dogs one of their seven regulation loses all season.
The Maineiacs are 5-1-0-0 at the ABC during the post-season and have outscored their opposition 21-11. In the regular season, the team was 21-12-1-0 on home ice and outscored their opponents 142-107.
So far in the playoffs, Saint John is a perfect 5-0-0-0 on the road and have outscored their opponents 23-10.
Game Four of the series is tomorrow night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee while Game Five, if needed, would be on Friday at Harbour Station.
REGULAR SEASON NUMBERS
| Lewiston | Saint John | |
| Record | 40-24-1-3 (2nd East) | 58-7-1-2 (1st Maritimes) |
| Home Record | - - - | 32-0-1-1 |
| Road Record | 19-12-0-3 | - - - |
| Streak | 2-0-0-0 | 2-0-0-0 |
| Last 10 | 4-4-1-1 | 8-2-0-0 |
| Goals For | 265 | 324 |
| Goals Against | 223 | 165 |
| Goals/Game | 3.90 (3rd) | 4.76 (1st) |
| Goals Against/Game | 3.28 (10th) | 2.43 (1st) |
| Shots/Game | 36.81 (1st) | 36.81 (1st) |
| Shots Against/Game | 26.96 (5th) | 26.96 (5th) |
| Overall PP | 17.4% (13th) | 25.1% (6th) |
| Home PP | - - - | 24.4% (8th) |
| Road PP | 17.7% (13th) | - - - |
| Overall PK | 80.4% (6th) | 83.7% (1st) |
| Home PK | - - - | 86.1% (1st) |
| Road PK | 80.1% (7th) | - - - |
| PIM/GAME | 17.7 (1st) | 13.1 (13th) |
SERIES SCHEDULE/RESULTS
GAME ONE – Lewiston 4, Saint John 5 (OT)
GAME TWO – Lewiston 1, Saint John 4
GAME THREE – Tuesday, April 26: 8 p.m. @ Androscoggin Bank Colisee
GAME FOUR – Wednesday, April 27: 8 p.m. @ Androscoggin Bank Colisee
*GAME FIVE – Friday, April 29: 7:30 p.m. @ Harbour Station
*GAME SIX – Sunday, May 1: 8 p.m. @ Androscoggin Bank Colisee
*GAME SEVEN – Tuesday, May 3: 7 p.m. @ Harbour Station
*If Necessary
One of the big questions going into Game Three: who will start in goal for Saint John.
Will the Sea Dogs stay with the hot hand and go with Mathieu Corbeil or will they go back to the experienced Jacob DeSerres who has played the majority of the team’s playoff games?
"There's a good chance I'm going to start with (Corbeil on Tuesday), but I haven't talked to my goalies yet," Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said to the Lewiston Sun Journal. "All season long I've been rotating goalies, and I've tried to be fair with them game in and game out ... I pulled (DeSerres) out of there, not because he played bad, but to try and spark the team, and then (Corbeil) comes in and stands on his head and lets only one goal in the next 70 or 75 minutes."
In the playoffs, DeSerres is 7-1-0-0 with a 2.14 GAA and a 0.910 save percentage. Corbeil is 3-0-0-0 with a 0.46 GAA and a save percentage of 0.978%.
Nicholas Champion was pulled from the Maineiacs' crease after the Sea Dogs made it 4-0 on Saturday. There wasn’t much he could do, though, given that his team played shorthanded for much of the game.
LEWISTON LINEUP
A couple of lineup notes for the Maineiacs. According to the Sun Journal, Samuel Finn and Michael Chaput are both day-to-day.
Meanwhile, Olivier Dame-Malka, the player who hit Jonathan Huberdeau from behind in Game Two, has not been suspended by the QMJHL. Malka was given a game misconduct and five-minute major for his actions. Huberdeau would be okay and returned a few minutes later.
AN EXTRA BODY
The Maine Hokey Journal reports that the Maineiacs called up goaltender Nathan Kelly to be an extra body in practice.
“Nathan Kelly is a real good guy and fun to be around,” Maineiacs head coach JF Houle said to the MHJ. “He wanted to spend sometime around the team, so it’s nice to have him.”
Good article in the Telegraph-Journal today on the relationship between fellow Russian forwards Stanislav Galiev of the Sea Dogs and Kirill Kabanov of the Maineiacs.
"He's my good friend,'' Kabanov said of Galiev. "I've known him since childhood, since I was about six years old. He was always good.
Speaking of Kabanov, he has been hot of late. From the team’s newsletter:
Lewiston's Kirill Kabanov had a slow start to the postseason, as he was held scoreless in the club's first three games against Moncton. Since then, the 18-year old forward has been anything but quiet, recording 18 points (7g, 11a) in ten games. Kabanov's ten-game point streak is the longest active streak in the QMJHL, and is one game away from tying Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and Frederick Roy for the longest streaks during the 2011 playoffs.PAYING TRIBUTE
We’ve seen a lot of on-ice pre-game ceremonies this season. But this is definitely a first. From the team’s newsletter:
The Lewiston MAINEiacs are proud to honor Ms. Doris Makas, the oldest season ticket holder in the Canadian Hockey League tonight.GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS
Ms. Makas, age 100, will drop the ceremonial puck prior to Game 3 of the series between the MAINEiacs and Saint John Sea Dogs at 7:00 PM.
Ms. Makas has been a season ticket holder with the MAINEiacs since the inaugural season of the Lewiston franchise in 2003-04.
She is seen in the first row of Section 12 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, in the accompaniment of her daughter, Elaine night after night, and year after year.
The MAINEiacs are truly honored and privledged for the tremendous support of people like Ms. Makas and hundreds of other loyal season ticket holders just like her!
Please come early to tonight's game, and help us honor at true hockey matriarch!
OTHER GAMES TONIGHT
Quebec at Gatineau - 7:30 PM EDT
The series is tied at 1-1.
THE RINK
Venue: Androscoggin Bank Colisee
Capacity: 3,675
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 2,001
Playoff Average Attendance: 1,743
QMJHL Arena Guide
MEDIA GUIDE
Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM
Live Web Feed: Telus
Television: None
Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation, Telegraph-Journal, Lewiston Sun Journal, Maine Hockey Journal
Live Coverage: Follow Station Nation on Twitter (www.twitter.com/station_nation) or follow the Live Blog on this site for live coverage of tonight’s game.
AFTER THE BUZZER
Game Four of the series is tomorrow night at 8:00 pm at Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
Photo Credits: Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Roaming The Rinks
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