RECAP: Sea Dogs Lose 7-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Rimouski 7

RIMOUSKI – If a Saint John-Rimouski rivalry exists, it certainly displayed itself tonight.

In a penalty filled and nasty affair, the Rimouski Oceanic defeated the Saint John Sea Dogs 7-3 at the building formerly known as Colisee Rimouski. The game featured a number of ejections, fights and nearly 100 minutes in penalties.

With so many penalties, special teams played a big role in this game with five power play and two shorthanded goals scored.

Christopher Clapperton and Anthony DeLuca each scored twice for Rimouski while singles came from Jan Kostalek, Deven St-Hillaire and Vincent Dunn. Louis-Philip Guindon made 26 saves in the victory.

Saint John goals came from Mathieu Joseph, Spencer Smallman and Braydon Blight. Alex Bishop made 36 saves in the loss.

At 2:26, Deven St-Hilaire clipped Samuel Dove-McFalls with his stick, sending Saint John to a four-minute power play. But the most dangerous shorthanded team in the QMJHL struck at 5:00 when Clapperton connected on a breakaway, making it 1-0 Rimouski. No long after, Frederik Gauthier hit the post while still shorthanded.

Dunn made it 2-0 at 7:01. DeLuca was parked behind the net and sent a short feed out to an open Dunn who beat Bishop, doubling Rimouski’s lead.

Saint John got on the board at 10:18. While shorthanded, Dove-McFalls dropped the puck back to Joseph who wired a wrist shot past Guindon to make it a 2-1 game. But just over a minute later, DeLuca scored a power play goal from the top of the circle to make it 3-1. Shots were 18-7 in favour of the Oceanic in the first period.

With Braydon Blight in the box, Clapperton wound up and fired a one timer past Bishop at 12:26 to give the Oceanic a 4-1 lead.

The physical play and overall nastiness carried over into the second frame. Amongst the worst plays in the period was Bokondji Imama receiving a game misconduct for abuse of officials at the 12:26.

With 10 seconds left in the period, a Kostalek shot from the side boards got past Bishop to make it 5-1 after two. Shots in a penalty filled second period were 12-8 in favour of the Oceanic.

In the third, and with every Sea Dog on the ice standing still, DeLuca scored a power play marker at 1:01 as he walked in and beat Bishop, making it a 6-1 game.

A couple minutes later, a point shot from Luke Green was tipped by Smallman, making it a 6-2 contest. Then the chaos started at 6:48 when Sam Morin hit Dove-McFalls from behind, thus creating a line brawl. The result:

On a four-on-three power play at 8:18, a Blight slapper from the high slot found its way in to make it a three-goal game. But any chance of a comeback was erased at 11:26 when St-Hilaire performed a wraparound to make it a 7-3 game.

Shots in the third were 13-13. Rimouski led on the shot clock overall, 43-29.

TURNING POINT/BIG MOMENT

Any momentum gained from Mathieu Joseph’s shorthanded goal in the first period was erased when Anthony DeLuca netted a power play marker just over a minute later, making it a 3-1 game.

SN PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Mathieu Joseph and Samuel Dove-McFalls seemed to play well once again.

STATS

NOTES

• According to Tim Roszell, Sea Dogs captain Mark Tremaine re-aggravated a lower body injury in Friday’s loss in Bathurst. He did not play in this game and it is not known how long he will be out.
• The Sea Dogs were also without forward Julien Tessier (flu) along with defensemen Jakub Zboril (lower body) and Jack vanBoekel (illness).
• Alex Bishop made his 13^th appearance of the season in the Sea Dogs net.
• Rimouski has scored a league high 20 shorthanded goals this season. That’s quite a bit.
• Suspensions are coming.
• Bokondji Imama probably shouldn’t be doing this. He was given an abuse of officials game misconduct.

Imama probably shouldn't be doing this https://t.co/1TwmLWSUxS
— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) February 14, 2015

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Victoriaville Tigres on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Harbour Station.