RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 3-1

FINAL: Moncton 1, Saint John 3

Lorne Webster | SN Staff

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs (28-18-1-6) defeated the Moncton Wildcats (34-16-0-3) 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station. It was only the second win for Saint John in the seventh of nine meetings between the two this season.

Adam Marsh, Juraj Siska and Thomas Chabot scored for Saint John while Jacob Sweeney replied for Moncton.

The Wildcats opened the scoring on a power play at 10:49 of the first, when Sweeney sneaked into the slot and one-timed a Conor Garland pass past Sebastien Auger. For fight fans, Justice Dundas scored a decisive win over Lane Cormier before the seven-minute mark. Cormier barely saw the ice after that. Marsh's bullet to the short side over Alex Dubeau's shoulder, off a face-off win by Nathan Noel with 18.2 seconds left, tied the score at 1-1. Saint John had 14 shots against 9 for Moncton.

Siska converted in close after a slick three-way passing play with Dan Del Paggio and Luke Green at 12:13 of the second to give Saint John a lead 2-1. While the Sea Dogs did a great job of controlling the play, especially wearing down the Wildcats along the boards, Moncton outshot Saint John 11-5 in the second period.

At 10:55 of the third, Auger stoned Ivan Barbashev on a penalty shot with a big pad save to maintain the one-goal lead. With 0.7 seconds left in the game, Chabot lofted the puck from near his own goal line into an empty net to make the final score 3-1. Saint John led on the shot clock 16-11 in the third and 35-31 overall.

TURNING POINT / BIG MOMENT

Sebastien Auger's denial of Ivan Barbashev's penalty shot midway through the third period turned out to be a game saver.

SN PLAYERS OF THE GAME

Matthew Highmore had a strong two-way game for Saint John and was very effective in keeping superstar Ivan Barbashev off the score board at even strength. Goaltenders Sebastien Auger and Alex Dubeau both turned in stellar performances, each with several big saves.   

STATS

NOTES 

• Captain Mark Tremaine returned to the line-up after missing eight games with a lower body injury.  
• Defencemen Jack vanBoekel (Mono) and Jakub Zboril (lower body injury) remain unavailable. Rookie forwards Matthew Green and Julien Tessier were healthy scratches.
• Boko Imama's game misconduct from Friday evening was rescinded by the league due to referee error. At the risk of firing up QMJHL conspiracy theorists, coach Ross Yates mentioned that this was the second time the league had rescinded a game misconduct against the Sea Dogs in the past week.
• It would be interesting to see time-on-ice statistics for Moncton, since the Barbashev line appeared to be on the ice for roughly 30+ minutes while players such as Lane Cormier and Liam Murphy may not have been on the ice for even two minutes.

NEXT GAMES
The Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst on Friday to face the Titan at 7:30 p.m. Then on Saturday at 5 p.m. the Sea Dogs will be in Rimouski to face the Oceanic.