PRE-GAME: Attack vs Sea Dogs

GAME DAY

2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup – Preliminary Round

Owen Sound Attack Saint John Sea Dogs

Tonight, May 23, 2011 at 8:00 pm

Hershey Centre

PREVIEW
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – The Saint John Sea Dogs can earn a berth in the Sunday’s MasterCard Memorial Cup final with a victory tonight over the Owen Sound Attack (8pm AST; Rogers Sportsnet/RDS, News 88.9).

If the Attack pull off a win tonight, things will get a bit more complicated in terms of who gets a bye to the final. From Rogers Sportsnet:

The tournament bracket currently favours the Sea Dogs, who could earn a bye straight through to Sunday's final with a win on Monday. A win by the Attack, on the other hand, puts them in the driver's seat to get the bye, but doesn't come with the same guarantee as it would for Saint John.

Without overstating all the mathematical implications of an Owen Sound win, both teams will be looking to make their road to the final much easier in a battle between the tournament's only two unbeaten teams.

“You know, when we got here we obviously told the kids about the scenarios and our goal was to win three games,” said Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant to Mississauga.com.

“If it takes less than that, that would be great but we just worry about one game at a time.”

No matter who wins this evening, we should be in for a dandy. Both teams sit at 1-0 after opening the tournament with victories. Saint John last played on Friday and defeated the host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors by score of 4-3. Owen Sound had an easier time in their opening match as they blew out the Kootenay Ice 5-0.

Mississauga and Kootenay met last night with the Majors wining 2-1. It was a snooze fest at times, but tonight’s matchup should provide some more entertainment.

The Attack won the Ontario Hockey League title in seven games over the Majors. Owen Sound won two of their four games in that series at the Hershey Centre – including the decisive Game Seven victory.

The winner of tonight’s game will carry a lot of momentum going forward with a 2-0 record. The Attack return to action on Wednesday against Mississauga while the Sea Dogs play tomorrow against Kootenay.

OWEN SOUND ATTACK (OHL Champions)

REGULAR SEASON

Record: 46-17-1-4
Goals For: 283
Goals Against: 215
Power Play: 23.9% (2nd)
Penalty Kill: 81.3% (7th)

2010-11 Final CHL Ranking: 8

PLAYOFFS
Record: 16-6
Goals For: 83
Goals Against: 65
Power Play: 23.3 (5th)
Penalty Kill: 76.8% (9th)

HOW THEY GOT HERE
-Defeated London Knights 4-2 in first round
-Defeated Plymouth Whalers 4-0 in second round
-Defeated Windsor Spitfires 4-1 in Western Conference Championship series
-Defeated Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors 4-3 in OHL Championship series

2011 Playoffs Top Scorers:
RW – Robby Mignardi: 22gp-15g-9a-24pts
C – Joey Hishon: 22gp-5g-19a-24pts
LW – Garrett Wilson: 22gp-11g-10a-21pts
C – Andrew Shaw: 20gp-10g-7a-17pts

PROSPECTS (Drafted or Projected)
Jesse Blacker – TOR - 58th in 2009
Garrett Wilson – FLA - 107th in 2009
Michael Zador – TB - 148th in 2009
Scott Stajcer – NYR - 140th in 2009
Joey Hishon – COL - 17th in 2010
Geoffrey Schemitsch – TB - 96th in 2010
Jordan Binnington - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 3 Goalie
Andrew Fritsch - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 84
Keevin Cutting - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 87

EXPECTED STARTER
From the Brandon Wheat Kings website:

The Attack used three different goaltenders during the 2011 OHL playoffs, with Michael Zador, Scott Stajcer and Jordan Binnington all seeing action during the team’s run to the championship. Binnington appeared in 46 regular-season games, the most of the three, and was the winning goaltender in the team’s Game 7 overtime win over the St. Michael’s Majors in the OHL final. While Binnington may have the edge, all three have shown they can perform in big-game situations.

Binnington got a shutout in Saturday’s game against Kootenay and he is expected to start this evening.

NO HISHON
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few hours, the Attack will be without star forward Joey Hishon. The Colorado Avalanche prospect was injured by the elbow of Kootenay’s Brayden McNabb on Saturday.

Hishon recorded 37 goals and 87 points in 50 games in the regular season. He added five goals and 19 assists in 22 playoff games to help the Attack capture the Ontario Hockey League title.

"Whoever plays or doesn't, it can't affect us," Sea Dogs defenceman Pierre Durepos said to Buzzing The Net.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
What the Attack are saying about the Sea Dogs. Robby Mignardi to Mississauga.com:

“They’re talented and they can definitely put pucks in the net,” said the Owen Sound forward. “We can’t turn over pucks like we did in the second period (against Kootenay) because we’ll pay for those mistakes against a team like Saint John. They’re a championship team and that makes them special.”

From Buzzing The Net:

"They've got some great defencemen back there," Attack captain Garrett Wilson said. "They have a very strong team, losing just under 10 games. It starts from the back end, and they have some shifty forwards too. They're a solid all-around team."

A GOOD DAY
From the Attack’s website, here is what the team did today:

After practice, the guys had their allotted one hour time frame to purchase Memorial Cup merchandise. Most of them loaded up on gear for family and friends who couldn’t make it. If you haven’t had a chance to stop around the Pepsi Fun Zone, I suggest you do so...it’s pretty neat place, especially for the kids or the kids at heart.

The guys even got a little competitive at the hardest shot tent (pictured above) with Garrett Wilson blasting a couple in at the low to mid 90’s (MPH).

From there, the boys loaded the bus and ventured back to the hotel for a pre game meal and a nap. It’ll be a tough game tonight as Saint John is known for their free flowing offensive type play. With Joey out of the line-up tonight, somebody will have to step in and make an impact and I can see a lot of players chomping at the bit to get that opportunity.

THE PARTY
Some Owen Sound radio station has video of the Attack’s sendoff party.

SAINT JOHN SEA DOGS (QMJHL Champions)

REGULAR SEASON

Record: 58-7-1-2
Goals For: 324
Goals Against: 165
Power Play: 25.6% (6th)
Penalty Kill: 83.7% (1st)

2010-11 Final CHL Ranking: 1

PLAYOFFS
Record: 16-3
Goals For: 84
Goals Against: 39
Power Play: 27.4% (3rd)
Penalty Kill: 92.6% (1st)

HOW THEY GOT HERE
-Defeated Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 4-0 in first round
-Defeated Victoriaville Tigres 4-1 in second round
-Defeated Lewiston Maineiacs 4-0 in Semi-Final series
-Defeated Gatineau Olympiques 4-2 in QMJHL Championship series

2011 Playoffs Top Scorers:
C – Jonathan Huberdeau: 19gp-16g-14a-30pts
LW – Stanislav Galiev: 19gp-10g-17a-27pts
RW – Zack Phillips: 17gp-9g-15a-24pts
RW – Tomas Jurco: 19gp-6g-12a-18pts

PROSPECTS (Drafted or Projected)
Jacob DeSerres – PHI - 84th in 2008
Simon Després – PIT - 30th in 2009
Éric Gélinas – NJ - 54th in 2009
Steven Anthony – VAN - 187th in 2009
Stanislav Galiev – WSH - 86th in 2010
Mathieu Corbeil – CBJ - 102nd in 2010
Stephen MacAulay - STL - 164th in 2010
Jonathan Huberdeau - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 3
Nathan Beaulieu - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 5
Zack Phillips - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 15
Tomas Jurco - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 20
Scott Oke - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 44
Ryan Tesink - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 47
Gabriel Bourret - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 92
Aidan Kelly - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 94
Jason Cameron - 2011 eligible - ranked No. 124

EXPECTED STARTER
Jacob DeSerres is expected to start in goal for Saint John. The 20-year old played in 16 of the Sea Dogs’ 19 playoff games and recorded a record of 12-3-0-0 to go along with a 0.916save percentage and a 2.00 goals against average.

LINEUP NOTES

It doesn’t look Steven Anthony will play tonight. From the Telegraph-Journal:

While Anthony practised Friday morning, the 19-year-old from Halifax is still nursing a lower-body injury. He's hopeful of a return this week, but an official time frame hasn't been announced. Saint John faces the Ontario Hockey League champion Owen Sound Attack tonight at 8 p.m.

Anthony has not played since Game One of the President’s Cup final where he suffered a lower-body injury.

Also out for Saint John will be rookie forward Jason Cameron who is done for the season with a bruised kidney.

Healthy scratches on Friday against Mississauga were Jason Seed, Spencer MacDonald, Devon Oliver-Dares, and Jacob Edwards.

ROCKING THE ROAD
The Sea Dogs loved life on the road during the post-season and they will hope to continue that all week.

Saint John went a perfect 10-0 during the playoff en route to a President’s Cup Championship. They outscored their opposition 46-22. The Dogs are 1-0 so far at the Memorial Cup following their win on Friday.

In the regular season they went 26-7-0-1 and outscored opponents 147-95.

Even though they are playing on the road this evening, the Sea Dogs are technically the home team.

COACHING CONNECTIONS
On Friday, the big storyline was the PEI connection between Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant and Majors head coach Dave Cameron. Tonight’s game features the relationship between Gallant and Mark Reeds, a relationship that saw the two engage in a fight back in their NHL days.

“I didn’t do very well. He got the best of me in that one,” said Reeds to the Toronto Star. “I’m sure I got a couple in.

“I’m alive. Here we are.”

NOTHING DIFFERENT
Gerard Gallant doesn’t expect the Attack’s game to be that far off from anything his team faced in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season.

“They (Attack) played a good, intense game,” said Gallant to Mississauga.com, “but there was nothing there that we didn’t see all season long. I thought Owen Sound moved the puck well from their defence to their forwards and they’ve got some speed.”

OTHER NOTES

BURNING QUESTIONS
Patrick King of Rogers Sportsnet takes a look at some of the questions going into today’s game.

ON-ICE CAM
Sportsnet has a camera at ice level you can watch. From the Sportsnet website:

Why watch from above when you can be at ground zero with the sportsnet.ca on-ice cam?

Watch the entire 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup from a players' perspective as sportsnet.ca presents the on-ice cam for the entire tournament.

For every single game, sportsnet.ca will have a cameraman following the action from ice level, jumping into every scrum and fight to give you a unique view of the action.

Check it out HERE.

THE RINK
Arena: Hershey Centre
Year Built: 1998
Capacity: 5,429
OHL Arena Guide

MEDIA GUIDE
TV: Rogers Sportsnet, RDS
Radio: News 88.9, Sportsnet Radio Fan 590
Live Blog: Station Nation, Buzzing The Net

NEXT SEA DOGS GAME
Saint John’s next game is tomorrow night against thr Western Hockey League champion Kootenay Ice at 8:00 pm.

Photo Credits: CHL, Google, Toronto Star, Getty Images, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Twitter