Sunday, January 15, 2012

POSTSCRIPT: Voltigeurs 0, Sea Dogs 3


A collection of recaps from last night’s 3-0 Saint John Sea Dogs win over the Drummondville Voltigeurs…

Our recap. Sebastien Auger stopped all 28 shots he faced on Saturday night to pick up his first Quebec Major Junior Hockey League shutout.

L’Express’ recap. Despite the loss, the Voltigeurs were pretty happy with their performance.

The Canadian Press’ recap. At Saint John N.B., Sebastien Auger earned his first QMJHL shutout, and first star of the game, turning aside 28 shots as the Sea Dogs (32-13-2) blanked Drummondville (17-24-5).

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. Domenic Graham made 19 saves in the loss as the Voltigeurs dropped to 17-24-2-3.

SN Live Blog replay. Domenic Graham was robbed of Top Dog honours. 

MISSING IN ACTION: Forwards Devon Oliver-Dares (head), Ryan Tesink (knee), Stanislav Galiev (wrist), and Maxime Villemaire (gone home) were Saint John's scratches. Dylan McGuigan was sent back down to the Maritime Junior Hockey League.

AUGER: Sebastien Auger stopped all 28 shots he faced on Saturday night, earning his first Quebec Major Junior Hockey League shutout. It wasn’t like the Sea Dogs were dominating Drummondville either, making Auger’s performance a key part in the victory.

He made quite a few big saves throughout the contest. The Volts, who have struggled offensively this season with the loss of Sean Couturier and Ondrej Palat to the pro ranks, outshot the Sea Dogs 28-22.

The rookie goaltender is now 7-2-0-2 with a 3.26 goals against average and a 0.875 save percentage.

THE OFFENSE: It was another off night for the Saint John offense. The Dogs scored twice in the first period with both going in off of Voltigeurs netminder Domenic Graham. Defenseman Pierre Durepos scored the other on a point shot in the second stanza. The Sea Dogs are averaging 26.56 shots per game this season, good for second in the league, but could only fire 22 on net last night. The Sea Dogs’ coaching staff shuffled the lines throughout the game but nothing seemed to greatly improve.

There was something off last night. They just couldn’t find the extra gear that Sea Dogs fans are used to seeing. Hopefully their offense has a bit more jump next weekend against Halifax.

COYLE: Charlie Coyle scored one of the weirdest goals of the season in the first period when he was standing behind the net and shot it towards Graham. The puck went in off of him to give the Dogs a 2-0 lead. The American now has two goals in his first two games as a Sea Dog.

Coyle finished last night’s game with a goal, a +1 rating, two shots, three hits and went 2/6 in the faceoff circle.

He had just three goals in 16 games with Boston University this season prior to leaving.

STREAK: Jonathan Huberdeau, like many of the Sea Dogs' forwards, had an average night. He was held pointless and didn’t record a shot on goal.

With no points registered, the Florida Panthers prospect saw his 10-game point streak come to an end.

It was only the third time this season that Huberdeau failed to get a point. In those three games, he didn’t record a shot.

VS DRUMMONDVILLE: Saint John improved to 2-0-0-0 against Drummondville this season with the victory. They have outscored the Volts 7-2. They meet again on February 3 at the Marcel Dionne Centre.

JERSEYS: A few solid jerseys spotted in and around Harbour Station last night. The first was a Zack Phillips Minnesota Wild alternate jersey. The second was a red Jonathan Huberdeau Florida Panthers sweater. But the jersey of the night goes to a fan that sat in the lower bowl wearing a dark Olivier Ouellet Sea Dogs jersey. Well done, sir. Well done.

STANDINGS: The Sea Dogs now sit two points back of the Shawinigan Cataractes for top spot in the league standings. Shawinigan has also played one less game.

The Cataractes needed a shootout to beat Bathurst 2-1 last night.

NOTES: Solid crowd of 5,209 attended this one… Jason Cameron and Danick Gauthier each had a Sea Dogs high three shots… Cameron led the team in hits with four… Gauthier had two assists… Saint John improved to 19-4-0-1 at Harbour Station this season… they also improved to 8-1-0-0 against Telus West Division opponents… Saint John is 13-5-0-0 when outshot by an opponent this season. They are 9-1-0-0 when outshot at home... the Sea Dogs don’t play again until next Saturday… Marc’s pictures from the game can be found here.

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV.


NEXT GAME: Saint John hosts the Halifax Mooseheads next Saturday night at 7pm at Harbour Station. 

Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation

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