POSTSCRIPT: Olympiques 3, Sea Dogs 2

RECAP
SAINT JOHN – After a Game One defeat, the Gatineau Olympiques rebounded with a 3-2 victory on Saturday night at Harbour Station. The win ties the President’s Cup final at 1-1 with Games Three and Four shifting to Gatineau on Monday and Wednesday.

Gatineau got off to a good start and struck twice in the first period. Hubert Labrie scored at 4:26 and then Tommy Tremblay made it 2-0 Olympiques at 9:42. Simon Despres responded for the Sea Dogs at 12:50 on a man advantage to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.

Gatineau was the better team for the first half of the opening frame but Saint John slowly started to get some pressure on, ultimately outshooting the ‘Piques 12-11.

In the second period, Saint John would outshoot Gatineau 13-7 but couldn’t beat goaltender Maxime Clermont.

Fast-forward to the final stanza, Nicolas Deslauriers netted his fifth of the playoffs at 5:01 to give his team a two-goal lead. With their goaltender pulled, Saint John pulled back within one as Despres scored his second of the match at 18:51 to make it 3-2.

It was all Saint John in the final two-minutes. Despite some intense pressure and a few great opportunities, they couldn’t tie it up before the buzzer sounded.

SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Defenseman Jason Seed was the lone healthy scratch for Saint John.

Forward Michael Kirkpatrick missed his second straight game with an “upper body injury” and is day-to-day. He was injured in Game Four of the semifinals in Lewiston and has not played since.

Also, forward Steven Anthony missed the match with a “lower body injury” that he suffered in the second period of Thursday’s Game One. Like Kirkpatrick, he is day-to-day.

Both are questionable for Game Three tomorrow night.

DESPRES STEPPING UP
Defenseman Simon Despres has stepped up his offensive game in the President’s Cup final.

The Pittsburgh Penguins prospect scored both Sea Dogs goal in yesterday’s game, giving him three goals in the series so far. Despres scored the game winner in Saint John’s 2-1 Game One victory on Thursday.

In 15 playoff games, Despres has four goals and six assists. In 21 post-season games last year he recorded two goals and 17 helpers.

GOING QUIET
It was another fairly quiet night for Saint John’s big offensive guns as they were stymied by the Gatineau defense and the goaltending of Maxime Clermont.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Stanislav Galiev each had just one assist. Zack Phillips and Tomas Jurco were both held off the score sheet.

Phillips had five shots on the night, Huberdeau four, Jurco one, and Galiev four.

GOOD GAME
Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant seemed fairly happy with the Sea Dogs’ performance on Saturday night.

From the Canadian Press:

"I thought they played real well," Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said of the Olympiques. "We had all kinds of chances to win the game. We played OK, but we didn't work hard enough.

"We worked hard the last two-and-a-half minutes to get close, but you have to (give them) more of a battle. Clermont was the best player on the ice again tonight."

MEMORIES
This series is beginning to look a lot like the Sea Dogs’ quarter-final matchup with the Victoriaville Tigres.

The Sea Dogs won the first match of their series against the Tigres and then lost the second game on home ice. They had a difficult time breaking through the Victoriaville defense and it was nearly impossible to beat the hot goaltending of David Honzik.

The good news is that the Sea Dogs managed to win that series in five games – including three straight road wins.

SOLID AGAIN
Maxime Clermont was once again excellent in the Gatineau crease. The 19-year old New Jersey Devils prospect recorded 38 saves on the night for the victory. He was certainly tested at times but held the fort.

"Our goalie was outstanding,” said Olympiques head coach Benoit Groulx to the Canadian Press. “He made key saves at key moments.”

Clermont has the best goals against average (2.08) and save percentage (0.928) of goaltenders participating in the playoffs.

HOME WOES
It was only the second regulation loss on home ice for the Sea Dogs this season. Their other loss was in Game Two of the quarter-finals against the Tigres.

The Dogs are now 6-2-0-0 on Harbour Station ice in the post-season and have outscored their opposition 36-14.

In the playoffs and regular season combined, the Dogs are 38-2-1-1 and have outscored opponents 213-84.

A MESSAGE
We’ve never really understood why people leave sporting events before they are completed. Last night, a large part of the sellout crowd at Harbour Station headed for the exits with 1:16 left and the Dogs down by two. A lot people stopped on the concourse after Saint John scored to make it a one-goal game while others had already entered the outside world.

These people have, apparently, not watched any Sea Dogs hockey games this year. Or maybe they have, but they left before the Dogs climbed back from two goals down.

The Pensblog said it best in their “Guide to Hockey Fans”:

To this fan, anything that takes place on the ice is secondary to how long it will take to leave the arena parking lot. Once the clock starts to tick down, the real game begins and this game is all about getting the hell of out the building as soon as possible.

For some reason this fan is at a hockey game, but desperately wants to leave it.

After all, we all know that nothing important ever happens after the 18 minute mark of the third period. The final two minutes of a hockey game is never, ever exciting.

QUICK HITS
Eric Gelinas, Zack Phillips, and Simon Despres all had a team leading five shots in the contest for Saint John… Philip-Michael Devos led the way for Gatineau with four shots… Danick Gauthier had five hits for Saint John… Hubert Labrie and Christian Ouellet each had three hits for Gatineau… it was the first sellout of the post-season at Harbour Station… the loss ended Saint John’s winning streak at eight games… rally towels were given out at the door… pretty decent showing for the “whiteout”… former Sea Dogs goaltender Karel St. Laurent was in the house… for photos of the game, visit Marc Henwood’s Facebook album… to relive the game, check out the SN Live Blog Replay.

HIGHLIGHTS
Courtesy of RDS:



NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs flew to Gatineau today and will face the Olympiques in Game Three of the final on Monday at 8:30 pm.

Photo Credits: Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation