DRUMMONDVILLE – The Saint John Sea Dogs are on a roll.
Devon Oliver-Dares, Scott Oke, Zack Phillips and Tomas
Jurco all scored for Saint John in their 4-2 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
victory on Friday night over the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The win gave the Sea
Dogs their fifth straight win and improved their record to 5-3-0-0.
The win also gave Saint John their second win on a
three-game road trip through Quebec. They defeated the Blainville-Boisbraind
Armada 3-1 on Wednesday and finish their trek tomorrow in Victoriaville. Game time
against the nation’s fourth ranked team is 5pm AST.
On Friday, the Sea Dogs netted two even strength, one
power play and one shorthanded goal to defeat the Voltigeurs. Saint John led
2-0 after one and 4-1 after two.
Netminder Mathieu Corbeil was excellent in goal again,
making 22 saves to earn the win. It was his fourth straight start in net since
returning from Columbus Blue Jackets training camp.
Although they were outshot 24-20, the Sea Dogs played a
much better game than they did on Wednesday in Boisbriand. The only obvious issues
were the penalties which allowed the Volts to stick around late in the contest.
Matthew Andreacchi and Oliver Archambault each scored for
Drummondville. Domenic Graham was pulled after allowing four goals on 12 shots.
His replacement, former Sea Dogs prospect Simon Giroux, stopped all eight shots
he faced.
If took a few minutes for either team to get a shot on
goal. Stanislav Galiev kicked things off with a high shot that hit the shoulder
of Domenic Graham and sailed over the net.
The Sea Dogs made it a 1-0 contest at 4:18 as Aidan Kelly
and Devon Oliver-Dares broke in on a two-on-one. Kelly carried the puck and
passed over to Oliver-Dares who slid the disc past Graham to give the visitors
an early lead.
Ian Saab had a light wrist shot go through some traffic a few
moments later but was denied.
Saint John went to their first man advantage at 9:26 but
the Volts put together a solid kill and kept Saint John’s chances to a minimum.
Drummondville went to the power play 13:57 as Ryan Tesink
headed off. While shorthanded, Scott Oke broke loose on a breakaway and beat
Graham with a deke to give the Dogs a 2-0 edge.
Back at even strength, Jason Seed made a spin move and
got the puck on net. It was stopped by Graham who also denied Zack Phillips on
the rebound attempt.
At 16:41, a big scrum behind the Drummondville net
resulted in a fight between Saab and Jonathan Oligny. The two had been chatting
in the corner for some time and finally dropped the gloves for a long tilt. Tesink somehow got an extra penalty out of the scrum. On
the power play, the Volts had some good pressure going but couldn't get on the
board.
19:47, Phillips took a high sticking penalty which would
put the Volts on the power play to start the second period.
Shots in the opening frame were 7-3 in favour of Saint
John.
SECOND PERIOD
On the power play that carried over, Bryce Milson had a
chance in front but had his stick lifted just prior to getting a shot off. That
would be it for the Voltigeurs’ man advantage opportunity.
Not long after Drummondville hit the post, Zack Phillips
made it a 3-0 game. At 5:31, Phillips made his way across the blue line and
slipped through a few defenders before whipping a backhander past Graham to
complete the beautiful play.
Shortly after the goal, Pierre Durepos fired a point shot
on net that was deflected and stopped by the Volts ‘tender.
Saint John went back to the power play at 8:05. Exactly
one-minute after the penalty was called, Graham stopped a Phillips shot but let
the rebound go to Tomas Jurco. The Slovak had an open cage to give the Sea Dogs
a 4-0 lead.
At 10:18, it looked as though a Kevin Gagne shot had
given Saint John a 5-0 edge. But Stephen MacAulay was called for interference
to erase the goal and give the home team a power play. At the same time, Simon
Giroux replaced Graham in net.
On the power play, the Volts did nothing.
They were given another man advantage chance at 12:58 as
Tesink headed off again. Then Nathan Beaulieu joined him the sin bin at 13:25
to give them a five-on-three advantage. On that power play chance, Matthew
Andreacchi tried to centre the puck but it hit something and slipped past Sea
Dogs goaltender Mathieu Corbeil to make it a 4-1 contest.
A big scrum in the Drummondville crease at 16:07 resulted
in a Sea Dogs power play. On the advantage, Danick Gauthier had the best chance
as he just missed the corner with a hard shot.
Shots were 10-8 Drummondville in the middle frame.
THIRD PERIOD
Jurco had a good chance early as he broke through the
defense but had the puck slide off his stick.
The Dogs went to yet another power play at 4:25 after Milson
and Galiev collided knee-on-knee in a bit of a scary incident - both would be
okay though. The Sea Dogs’ power play did basically nothing during the
two-minute span.
The Volts started to get some pressure on halfway through
the frame. Maxime Vellemaire let a backhand shot go that was stopped. Then,
Olivier Archambault made a nice spin move in front and get a shot off that was
padded away by Corbeil.
Beaulieu headed to the box at 12:17. On the man advantage
at 14:10, Oligny sent the puck cross ice to an open Archambault who slid the
disc in to make it a two-goal game.
The Sea Dogs’ penalty woes continued at 14:18 as Saab was
sent off. Drummondville’s best chance came when Corbeil made an unreal glove
save on Milson.
Later in the frame, Tesink nearly made it 5-2 but sent it
wide. Then Gauthier was robbed in close by Giroux.
The Volts pulled their netminder in the final minute but it was too late,
giving the Sea Dogs their fifth straight victory.
Shots were 11-5 Drummondville in the third.
Saint John went 1-for-4 on the power play while
Drummondville went 2-for-7.
Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation
Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation
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