POSTSCRIPT: Titan 5, Sea Dogs 1

A collection of recaps from last night’s 5-1 Saint John Sea Dogs loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan…

Our recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs returned to Harbour Station on Saturday night to face off against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

The Telegraph-Journal’s recap (paywall). The sports section of their website hasn’t been updated since before Christmas.

News 88.9’s recap. Featuring Tim Roszell’s goal calls.

The Canadian Press’ recap. At Saint John, N.B., Patrick Walsh had a goal and an assist and Jacon Brennan turned aside 26-of-27 shots as Acadie-Bathurst (14-20-5) handed the Sea Dogs (16-21-0) their fifth straight defeat.

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without Matthew Highmore (World Under-17s – Team Atlantic), Olivier LeBlanc (World Under-17s – Team Quebec), Jonathan Huberdeau (World Juniors – Team Canada), Justin Dickinson (healthy), David Weckworth (lower body), and Jurij Repe (hand) on Saturday night.

According to News 88.9, Jason Seed, Ryan Kelly, and Michael Mastrangelo have been removed from the roster. No big surprises there.

ABBOTT: Defenseman Michael Abbott, acquired on Boxing Day in a trade with Gatineau, made his Sea Dogs debut. He was beat to the puck on Bathurst’s first goal – a shorthanded marker – but made up for it by assisting on Stephen Anderson’s power play goal. He finished the game with one helper, one hit, and a -2 rating.

McDONALD: Defenseman Justin McDonald, called up from the MHL’s Dieppe Commandos, made his QMJHL debut. He was a -1 and had one shot in the loss. McDonald has 24 points in 24 games with Dieppe this year.

MOSHER: Defenseman David Mosher, called up from the MHL’s Truro Bearcats, played in his second game with the Sea Dogs this season. He was a -1 and had one shot. Mosher also played for Saint John on September 30.

DICKINSON: Forward Justin Dickinson took warm up for Saint John but was the team’s final scratch. He hasn’t played since December 16 in PEI where he was injured following a fight. He has no points in two games since joining the Dogs.

FIRST PERIOD: There was a shorthanded goal, power play goal, and even strength goal all scored just 5:07 into the game. Bathurst led 2-1 after one and out shot Saint John 14-6. Stephen Anderson had a nice snipe to score the Sea Dogs’ lone goal in the first.

SECOND PERIOD: In the second, Saint John had a lengthy five-on-three power play and applied some pressure but could not score. The Titan added two more to lead 4-1 after 40 minutes. Shots were 12-12 in the middle stanza.

O’BRIEN: Zach O’Brien scored his 24^th goal of the season in the third period to make it a 5-1 final. O’Brien showed some patience as he skated around a fallen Auger. The 20-year old who had 101 points last season has 50 points in 37 games this year.

STRANGE: With 1:07 left in the game and up 5-1, the Titan called a time out. Not sure what that was about but is was a waste of everyone’s time.

DUREPOS: With Saint John thin and inexperienced on defense with Kevin Gagne traded, Jurij Repe and David Weckworth hurt, and Olivier LeBlanc away at the World Under-17 Hockey Championship, 20-year old Pierre Durepos played a whole lot in this game and probably will do the same for the next few. He had an assist, -4 rating, and six shots.

AUGER: For the third straight game, Sea Dogs goaltender Sebastien Auger faced at least 40 shots. It wasn’t Auger’s best performance of the season as he allowed five goals on 40 shots. He is now 16-15-0-0 with a 3.11 GAA and 0.905 SV%.

VS TITAN: The Sea Dogs are now 2-3-0-0 against the Titan this season while Bathurst is 3-1-1-0 against Saint John.

STREAK: The Sea Dogs have now lost four straight games and are just 2-8-0-0 in their last 10. Things don’t get any easier with back-to-back games against the Moncton Wildcats coming up.

STANDINGS: Saint John is now four games below the .500 mark and slipped to fifth in the Telus Maritimes Division and 14^th overall in the league with a 16-2-0-0 record. They are a point below the Titan but have played three fewer games.

ATTENDANCE: Decent crowd of 4,256 watched this one. It was the first time since December 9 that Saint John had a crowd sized over 4,000.

NOTES: The Scotia Zone sign got a makeover… Scotiabank made a $10,000 donation to the United Way before the game… thunder stix were handed out at the door. Felt a little like 2006… Sea Dogs head coach Mike Kelly was away scouting so Ross Yates ran the bench… bunch of Titan fans were at the game… Zach O’Brien had eight shots… Andrew Meredith had four hits… Ryan Tesink had three hits.

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Wildcats in Moncton this afternoon at 4pm.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation