Sea Dogs Notebook

Q FINAL

The Halifax Mooseheads took a 1-0 series lead in the 2013 President Cup Final with a 4-0 victory over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar last night at the Metro Centre.

Konrad Abeltshauser, Trey Lewis, Ryan Falkenham, and Stefan Fournier all scored for the Moose. Zach Fucale was real solid in net, making 28 saves for the shutout.

Nathan MacKinnon was held pointless while Drouin had just one assist. Drouin delivered a dangerous hit from behind in the first period and probably should have been tossed from the game. He received a boarding minor instead.

Former Sea Dogs forward Stephen MacAulay had two assists in the game. He also had one shot, a +2 rating, two penalty minutes, and went 2/5 on faceoffs. The 20-year old now has five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 12 playoff games this year, a new career high.

The Mooseheads improved to a perfect 13-0 in this year’s post-season. Game 2 is tonight at 7pm.

In the OHL Final, the Barrie Colts took a 1-0 series lead with a 4-2 victory over the London Knights. The Edmonton Oil Kings took a 1-0 lead in the WHL Final with a 4-1 win over the Portland Winterhawks.

MacAULAY

A couple interesting things worth noting from the “Interesting numbers – The President Cup Finals” article on the QMJHL website.

According to the article, the record for most playoff games played in a career is 78 games which is co-owned by Marc Bouchard (1995-1999 | CHI-BAT) and Danny Groulx (1998-2002 | VDO-BAT-VIC). MacAulay played in his 71^st career post-season game last night and unfortunately will not be able to reach the record.

Also from the article:

The 20-year-old veteran of the Mooseheads Stephen MacAuley will be reaching his 4th consecutive appearance in the finals of the President Cup this year, a rare occurrence that Jacques Jr Locas had achieved with the Québec Remparts in the early 1970s. Previously with the Saint John Sea Dogs, MacAulay has had a chance to raise the trophy in two occasions (2011 and 2012). Only 7 players have won 3 President Cups - This could be the case for MacAuley in a few days - but the last to manage a tour de force of the kind was Danny Groulx with Victoriaville in 2002, after winning top honors with Val-d'Or (1998) and Acadie-Bathurst (1999).

Neat stuff.

THE WILD

Charlie Coyle and the Minnesota Wild are down 2-0 in their first-round playoff series against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Wild lost Game 2 by score of 5-2 last night. Coyle had an assist on Marco Scandella’s third period goal. He also had three shots, three hits, and a -1 rating in 17:12 minutes of ice time.

Game 3 is tomorrow in Minnesota.

FRED PAGE CUP

At the Fred Page Cup last night in Truro, the Bearcats booked a trip to the championship game with a 3-2 victory over the Summerside Western Capitals. The Bearcats will play the winner of tonight’s Summerside-Cornwall semi-final game for the Fred Page Cup tomorrow at 2pm.

Last night, former Sea Dogs forward Grant West scored the game winner in the third period for Truro. He was named Truro’s player of the game.

Former Dogs Dylan McGuigan and David Mosher were also in the Bearcats lineup while Summerside had Danny Chiasson, Jason Seed, and Spencer MacDonald playing.

ECHL

In the East Coast Hockey League, the Reading Royals took a 1-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final with a 5-4 double-overtime victory over the Cincinnati Cyclones.

Stanislav Galiev did not play for Reading due to an ankle injury. He has three goals and six assists in nine playoff games this year.

The Cyclones feature former Sea Dogs defensemen Charles-Olivier Roussel and David MacDonald. Roussel had an assist last night.

LABONTE

Former Sea Dogs forward Alexandre Labonte has signed with the French league team Anglet-Hormadi.

Labonte was a third-round pick of Saint John in the 2005 QMJHL Entry Draft. He spent one-and-a-half seasons with the Sea Dogs scoring a total of six goals and 10 assists in 83 games. He has spent the past four seasons playing with the St. Thomas Tommies.