GAMEDAY 6 - vs Titan

GAMEDAY

Acadie-Bathurst Titan vs Saint John Sea Dogs

Tonight, September 24, 2011 at 7pm

Harbour Station

PREVIEW

SAINT JOHN – The Saint John Sea Dogs will be looking to get some revenge tonight at Harbour Station when they host the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at 7pm.

The Titan hammered the Sea Dogs 8-1 at the KC Irving Regional Centre on September 9. Zach O’Brien had a hat trick in the game while Ludovic Kabambi, Marc-Olivier Mimar, Alec Jon Banville, Sebastien Trudeau and Matthew Bissonnette also scored. Bissonnette had four assists and Trudeau had three.

Robert Steeves made 23 stops to give the Titan a win in their season opener.

The only Saint John goal came from Brock Morrison. Sebastien Auger allowed eight goals on 27 shots.

Tonight, the Sea Dogs will look to avenge that loss and even up their season series with the Titan. With a win today, Saint John can also reach the .500 mark with a 3-3 record.

The Sea Dogs’ lineup should be quite a stronger than the one that faced the Titan earlier this month thanks to the return of several NHL campers.

Bathurst enters action today with a record of 3-2-1-0 and sit second in the Maritimes Division with seven points. After a hot start to the season, the Titan have since cooled down. They are 0-2-1-0 in their past two games.

NOTES: Zach O’Brien leads the Titan and the entire league in scoring with eight goals and eight assists for 16 points. Bathurst has only played six games this season… O’Brien leads the Titan in goals with eight this season. Matthew Bissonnette, Sebastien Trudeau, and Christophe Losier all have four goals each… O’Brien, Bissonnette, and Trudeau all have a team high eight assists… defenseman Samuel Robert is a Titan best +6… Olivier Houle and Michael Lyle are both a team low -3… Sean Girard has served 14 penalty minutes which is a team high… Bathurst has outscored their opposition 28-20… their power play is running at 39.4% which is good for second in the league… Bathurst’s penalty kill is ranked 9th in the league with a rating of 78.8%... they are 1-1-1-0 on the road this season… O’Brien is tied for the league high in power play goals with four… O’Brien has a league high six power play assists… O’Brien also leads the league in game winning goals with three.

IN NET: Robert Steeves is the Titan’s No. 1 netminder. He has a record of 3-1-1-0 to go along with a 3.01 goals against average and a 0.887 save percentage.

LAST GAME: The Titan are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Val-d’Or Foreurs on Tuesday night at the KC Irving Regional Centre. Zach O’Brien and Alec Jon Banville each scored in the loss. Robert Steeves made 20 stops in the game.

NOTES: Danick Gauthier leads the Sea Dogs in scoring with five points (three goals and two assists)… Gauthier leads the Sea Dogs in goal scoring with three. Oliver Cooper, Brock Morrison, and Stephen Anderson all have two goals each… Spencer MacDonald has three assists which is a team high… Gauthier is a Sea Dogs best +4… Devon Oliver-Dares and Jason Seed are each a Sea Dogs worse -7… MacDonald continues to lead Saint John in penalty minutes with 15… the Sea Dogs have been outscored 26-17 by their opposition… they are 2-1-0-0 on home ice… Saint John’s power play is ranked 15^th in the league with an 11.8% rating… the Sea Dogs’ penalty kill is also ranked 15^th in the league with a rating of 65.2%... Kevin Gagne has taken a team high 15 shots.

LINEUP: The Sea Dogs’ lineup could have some changes in it tonight. Reports indicate that forwards Zack Phillips, Stephen MacAulay and Tomas Jurco have all been released from their NHL training camps and have been assigned back to Saint John.

It’s not clear if any will play tonight. But after only being able to dress 10 forwards last night, the Sea Dogs will surely try to get as many in as they can.

SPECIAL GUEST: The Sea Dogs posted on Twitter today that a “very special guest” will be at the game tonight. Former Sea Dogs netminder Jacob DeSerres was at last night’s match.

IN NET: Mathieu Corbeil made his first start of the season last night after returning from Columbus Blue Jackets training camp. He made 31 saves through 65 minutes of action and then stopped all four shooters in the shootout to earn the win.

Charlie Millen was Corbeil's backup last night.

LAST GAME: Saint John is coming off a 5-4 shootout victory over the Val-d’Or Foreurs last night at Harbour Station. Stephen Anderson, Stanislav Galiev, McKenzie Brown and Jason Cameron all scored in regulation while Aidan Kelly scored the lone shootout marker. Mathieu Corbeil made 31 saves.

FOOD DRIVE

From the Sea Dogs website:

The Saint John Sea Dogs, in partnership with Bell Aliant Pioneers, will host a food drive at Saturday’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game.
 The Acadie-Bathurst Titan visit the Sea Dogs Saturday at 7 p.m., and volunteers from Bell Aliant Pioneers will be collecting food for local food banks as part of their “Dish it Up!” initiative.
 This Healthy Food Drive is focused on providing healthy food based on the Canada Food guide. Examples include:
 -Whole wheat pastas
-Brown rice
-Canned fruit (packed in its own juices)
-Canned vegetables
-Canned meats (tuna, salmon, ham, chicken or turkey)
-Canned or dry beans (black, kidney, pinto, navy, garbanzo)
-Peanut butter (plastic jars only, please)

OTHER GAMES

Cape Breton at Baie-Comeau - 4:00 PM EDT

Halifax at Moncton - 7:00 PM ADT

Val-d'Or at P.E.I. - 7:00 PM ADT

Drummondville at Blainville-Boisbriand - 7:00 PM EDT

THE RINK

Venue: Harbour Station

Capacity: 6,297

Average Attendance: 3,657

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

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.

NEXT GAME

The Sea Dogs head to Quebec this week and take on the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada on Wednesday night at 8pm.