Saturday, February 18, 2012

RECAP: Puttin' On A Show. Dogs Win 4-1.

FINAL: Quebec 1, Saint John 4

SAINT JOHN – The Quebec Remparts were unable to contain the hottest team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Friday night at Harbour Station and in front of a national television audience.

The Saint John Sea Dogs scored three times in the opening period en route to a 4-1 victory over the Remparts. The win was Saint John’s 11th straight and improved their overall record to a league best 41-14-0-2.

Tomas Jurco, Maxime Villemaire, Danick Gauthier, and Stanislav Galiev all scored for the Sea Dogs. Captain Jonathan Huberdeau registered three assists in his first star performance. Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil was solid in net, making 25 saves for the win.

Quebec’s lone goal came from Anthony Duclair. Francois Brassard got the start in net but was pulled after allowing three goals on 13 shots. Louis Domingue made 24 saves in relief.

The Remparts fell to 34-15-5-2 and are now eight points back of the Telus East Division leading Shawinigan Cataractes.

This was another good game played by Saint John. They were excellent in the first half of the game and then played well defensively the rest of the way home. Corbeil put in another stellar performance in goal. Rob Faulds was everywhere.

The Sea Dogs have the rest of the weekend off. They will host the Halifax Mooseheads on Tuesday night at the Station.

On Friday in front of a sold-out house, the Sea Dogs took a 1-0 lead at 6:18. Huberdeau fired the original shot and then, from an impossible angle, Jurco banked the puck of Brassard and in to open the scoring.

Saint John doubled their lead at 11:59. Charles Roussel was in the slot and, with great patience, made a perfect pass to an open Villemaire. The forward had an open cage to give the home side a 2-0 lead.

Gauthier gave the Dogs a 3-0 lead at 12:21 by scoring his 40th of the season. Pierre Durepos let a point shot go which was followed by Gauthier beating Brassard at the side of the goal to give Saint John a commanding lead. That would end Brassard’s night.

In the second period, Ryan Tesink and Logan Shaw dropped the gloves at 2:01. Very few punches were thrown and little contact was made during the scrap.

At 8:04, Galiev gave the Dogs a 4-0 advantage. The Russian was in the slot area and sniped the disc top corner to extend Saint John’s lead.

The Remparts’ lone goal came at 17:32 of the middle frame when Duclair walked around a scrum in the Saint John crease, depositing the puck for his 23rd of the season.

Shots in the game were 38-26 in favour of Saint John. The Sea Dogs went 0-for-2 on the man advantage while Quebec went 0-for-3.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow on SN.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Halifax Mooseheads on Tuesday night at 7pm.

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