GAME DAY
President’s Cup Playoffs - Round 2, Game Three
Saint John Sea Dogs vs Victoriaville Tigres
Tonight, April 12, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Colisee Desjardins
SERIES STATUS
The best-of-seven quarter-final playoff series between the 11th-seeded Victoriaville Tigres and the top-seeded Saint John Sea Dogs is currently tied at 1-1.
VICTORIAVILLE, Que. – It’s the biggest game of the season for the Saint John Sea Dogs tonight in Victoriaville.
Tied at 1-1 in their best-of-seven quarter-final series against the Victoriaville Tigres, Saint John will try to take a series lead and take a big momentum boost. The Sea Dogs won Game One of the series on Friday at Harbour Station by score of 4-1 and then dropped a 3-2 decision on Saturday.
Victoriaville was very opportunistic with their chances in Saturday’s game and did a fantastic job at shutting down Saint John’s dangerous offense. Although the Sea Dogs had plenty of shots, the Tigres were able to keep them away from any second chances.
Of course, a big reason why Victoriaville was victorious was because of the play of their goaltender, the draft eligible David Honzik. The netminder has been unreal in the post-season so far and is a major factor in how the Tigres made this quarter-final series.
The Tigres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game Two and that really seemed to give the squad a big boost going forward. With the series now shifting to Quebec, the first goal of the game could prove to be huge in terms of momentum.
Victoriaville has now beaten the Sea Dogs twice in regulation time this season – once at home and once on the road.
In last year’s semi-final series against the Tigres, the Dogs had their troubles in Victoriaville but still managed to come out on top in the six-game series.
The next three games will be played at Colisee Desjardins.
REGULAR SEASON NUMBERS
| Victoriaville | Saint John | |
| Record | 35-29-1-3 (3rd East) | 58-7-1-2 (1st Maritimes) |
| Home Record | - - - | 32-0-1-1 |
| Road Record | 19-13-1-1 | - - - |
| Streak | 0-3-0-0 | 2-0-0-0 |
| Last 10 | 5-5-0-0 | 8-2-0-0 |
| Goals For | 256 | 324 |
| Goals Against | 240 | 165 |
| Goals/Game | 3.76 (6th) | 4.76 (1st) |
| Goals Against/Game | 3.53 (12th) | 2.43 (1st) |
| Shots/Game | 31.16 (6th) | 36.81 (1st) |
| Shots Against/Game | 30.24 (10th) | 26.96 (5th) |
| Overall PP | 22.1% (11th) | 25.1% (6th) |
| Home PP | - - - | 24.4% (8th) |
| Road PP | 25.4% (6th) | - - - |
| Overall PK | 75.0% (16th) | 83.7% (1st) |
| Home PK | - - - | 86.1% (1st) |
| Road PK | 75.9% (14th) | - - - |
| PIM/GAME | 14.0 (11th) | 13.1 (13th) |
SERIES SCHEDULE
Game One – Tigres 1, Sea Dogs 4
Game Two – Tigres 3, Sea Dogs 3
Game Three - Tuesday, April 12, at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins
Game Four - Wednesday, April 13, at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins
Game Five - Friday, April 15, at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins
*Game Six – Monday, April 18 at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station
*Game Seven – Tuesday, April 19 at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station
*if necessary
BEATING HONZIK
David Honzik has proven to be the playoff version of Evan Mosher.
Honzik has played all six playoff games so far for the Tigres. He is 5-1 with a 0.934 save percentage and a 2.62 goals against average. The netminder has allowed just 16 goals on 242 shots.
Honzik has been solid in both games of this series, stealing Game Two with some insane stops. He made 39 saves in Game One and 41 in Game Two.
"They have the momentum,'' said Sea Dogs forward Jonathan Huberdeau to the Telegraph-Journal, referring to Victoriaville's 3-2 triumph in Game 2. "We need to break that (tonight) and play simple (by) shooting at the net and making traffic. We know the goalie (David Honzik) is good.''
KIRKPATRICK OUT
The Telegraph-Journal reported this morning that Sea Dogs centre Michael Kirkpatrick is not expected to play tonight. He missed Game Two with what the team is calling an “upper body” injury which is rumored to be a concussion.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Special teams have proven to be a key part of this season.
In Game Two, Victoriaville went 2-for-3 on the power play and Saint John went 2-for-6. In Game One, the Tigres went 1-for-6 while the Sea Dogs went 0-for-2.
The three power play goals that the Tigres have scored in this series are the only man advantage markers Saint John has allowed in the post-season so far. Their penalty kill is operating at 90.9%.
OTHER GAMES
Montreal at Lewiston - 7:00 PM EDT
Quebec at Shawinigan - 7:00 PM EDT
Saint John at Victoriaville - 7:00 PM EDT
Drummondville at Gatineau - 7:30 PM EDT
THE RINK
Venue: Colisee Desjardins
Capacity: 2,933
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 2,551
Playoff Average Attendance: 2,403
QMJHL Arena Guide
Apparently, this is hilarious.
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
Game four of the series goes tomorrow night at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins.
Photo Credits: Tigres Facebook page, Roaming The Rinks (really cool site)
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