RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 3-2

FINAL: Saint John 3, Cape Breton 2

SYDNEY, NS – Marc-Antoine Turcotte is proving to be a great pickup for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The 20-year-old netminder had another solid outing on Friday night at Centre 200, making 36 saves in Saint John’s 3-2 victory over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The win improved the Dogs to 2-1-0-0 while the Eagles fell to 1-2-0-0.

The Sea Dogs had a strong road period in the first but the Screaming Eagles applied a lot of pressure throughout the final 40 minutes. Turcotte stood his ground and made some timely saves to ensure a Sea Dogs victory.

Saint John opened the scoring on a power play at 4:57. Joe Velno was in the corner and sent a short feed to Daniel Del Paggio who quickly made it 1-0. Then at 12:27 on another man advantage, Jason Bell ripped a point shot that beat Alexandre Belanger to make it 2-0.

Cape Breton got on the board soon after Saint John’s second goal. At 15:20, a point shot got stopped in some traffic but Pierre-Luc Dubois found the puck and beat Turcotte to make it 2-1 heading into the first intermission.

In a minor penalty filled second period, Matthew Highmore netted the only goal on a power play at 12:46. Bell was at the line and sent a great feed down low to the veteran forward who beat Belanger blocker side.

Turcotte was especially solid for the Sea Dogs late in the second when they killed off a lengthy five-on-three Cape Breton man advantage.

In the third, Alexandre Gosselin jammed the puck in at 9:20 to make it a one-goal game. The Eagles had some pressure late, but because of a penalty taken by Gosselin, they couldn’t get a whole lot going.

NOTES

• Jason Bell made his return to the Sea Dogs lineup after missing last weekend’s game due to Calgary Flames rookie camp.
• Former Sea Dogs defenseman Olivier LeBlanc did not play for the Screaming Eagles. He is in Columbus at Blue Jackets training camp.
• With this being the Screaming Eagles’ home opener, there was a pre-game ceremony to introduce the whole team. Also, Pierre-Luc Dubois was honoured for helping Canada win gold at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup tournament last month.
• Solid crowd of 3,837 at the game.
• For the second straight game, Matthew Highmore wore the ‘C’ for Saint John.
• Maxim Lazarv made his season debut with the Screaming Eagles.
• Will Kelly made his Sea Dogs debut, wearing No. 39.
• Joe Veleno picked up his first QMJHL assist in the first period, sending a nice, short feed to Daniel Del Paggio to open the scoring.
• Despite missing some key offensive players due to NHL camps, the Sea Dogs had a strong night on the power play, going 3-for-8.
• Saint John has not allowed a power play goal against this season.
• According to Tim Roszell, the Sea Dogs were outshot 29-10 in the final two periods.
• Saint John’s first shot in the third period came with 4:53 to go.
• The Sea Dogs had just six hits in the entire game, according to the QMJHL website. Cape Breton had 21.

STATS

TURNING POINT/BIG MOMENT

Marc-Antoine Turcotte made some timely saves throughout. None were more important than some saves off a weird scramble in the final seconds of the game.

SN PLAYERS OF THE GAME

3. Pierre-Luc Dubois

2. Matthew Highmore

1. Marc-Antoine Turcotte

TWEET OF THE GAME

Diehard stoked for CB's home opener vs. SJ Sea Dogs. pic.twitter.com/TlYYQEfrpv

— Andrew Rankin (@AndrewRankinCB) September 18, 2015

NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs are in Halifax tomorrow night to take on the Mooseheads at 7 p.m.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation