Thursday, January 29, 2015

RECAP: Sea Dogs Lose 7-1

FINAL: Saint John 1, Shawinigan 7
Lorne Webster | SN Staff

SHAWINIGAN, QC - In their first of three games in three days in Quebec, the Saint John Sea Dogs (25-16-1-6) were in Shawinigan to face the Cataractes (27-18-1-2) Thursday evening. The Cataractes continued their dominance over the Sea Dogs in Shawinigan with a convincing 7-1 win. 

The win was Shawinigan's fourth in a row over Saint John at Centre Gervais Auto dating back to the semi-final of the 2012 Memorial Cup. Specialty teams played a significant role as Shawinigan was 5/13 on the power play and also had a shorthanded goal to open the scoring.

Alex Pawelczyk and Christophe Lalonde each had two goals to lead the Cataractes to the win. Giovanni Fiore, Anthony Beauvillier and Brandon Gignac added singles for Shawinigan while Mathieu Joseph replied for the Sea Dogs.          

In what is becoming a disturbing trend, the Sea Dogs got off to a bad start. While shorthanded, Olivier Caouette chipped the puck past a pinching Thomas Chabot, carried it into the Sea Dogs end and slid a nice pass to a streaking Pawelczyk who deked Bishop and backhanded the puck into the right corner at 2:53. Just over a minute later, Lalonde corralled a loose puck in front of the crease and snapped the puck past a fallen Bishop to make it 2-0. Shawinigan outshot Saint John 18-5 in the first period.
  
On a power play at 4:07 of the second period, Lalonde carried the puck in the Sea Dogs end, stopped along the boards on the right wing and feathered a pass to Fiore in the slot, who fired the puck over Bishop's glove to extend Shawinigan's lead to 3-0. On another power play at 15:54, Pawelczyk scored his second of the night when he carried the puck down the left wing and wristed a shot that fooled Bishop on the short side. The Cataractes led 9-7 on the shot clock and 4-0 on the scoreboard.

The Sea Dogs finally got a puck past Marvin Cupper just 37 seconds into the third when Adam Marsh stole the puck just inside the Cataractes blue line, feeding Joseph in the high slot who fired the puck into the top corner behind a screened Cupper. The Sea Dogs were called for a series of penalties that led to three straight five-on-three power play goals by Lalonde, Beauvillier and Gignac in the final four minutes. Shawinigan had 15 shots against 10 for Saint John in the third to lead in shots 42-22 overall.

TURNING POINT/BIG MOMENT
Two goals 1:10 apart early in the first period set the tone for the game.

SN PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Former Moncton Wildcat Christophe Lalonde showed that he is still able to suck the Sea Dogs into penalties with his trash talk and back it up, registering two goals and two assists. Mathieu Joseph played a strong two-way game and was the only Sea Dog to score.

TWEET OF THE NIGHT
STATS
NOTES 
  • The Cataractes returned to Centre Gervais Auto following a pair of successful outdoor games during the QMJHL 2015 Winter Classic in St-Tite, QC last weekend.
  • With Sebastien Auger returning to the line-up, Blade Mann-Dixon was reassigned to the Valley Wildcats of the MHL. Auger was Alex Bishop’s backup on this night.
  • Forward Juraj Siska (flu), forward Mark Tremaine (lower body injury) and defenceman Jakub Zboril (lower body injury) did not travel to Shawinigan with the Sea Dogs. Dan Del Paggio was the only healthy scratch for Saint John.

NEXT GAMES
The Sea Dogs travel to Drummondville tomorrow to face the Voltigeurs at 8 p.m. They then move on to Blainville-Boisbriand for a 5 p.m. start on Saturday.

No comments:

Post a Comment