RECAP: Sea Dogs lose 4-3 (OT)

FINAL: Victoriaville 4, Saint John 3 (OT)

Kevin Chambers | SN Staff

SAINT JOHN – An undermanned Saint John Sea Dogs squad blew a late lead and dropped an 4-3 overtime decision to the Victoriaville Tigres on Thursday night at Harbour Station.

Alexandre Goulet tied the game at 19:19 of the third period and then rookie Ivan Kosorenkov netted his second of the game at 2:21 of overtime to give the Tigres the extra point. Felix Lauzon had Victoriaville's other goal. Olivier Tremblay made 22 saves in the win.

The goal scorers for the Sea Dogs were Matthew Highmore with two and Mathieu Joseph. Alex Bishop had an unusually busy night, stopping 39 of the 43 shots he faced.

To the notes…

• The Sea Dogs opened the scoring at 11:06 of the first when Highmore banged home a rebound during a four-on-three power play.
• The Tigres evened the game at 1-1 at 1:06 of the second period when Lauzon went top shelf over Bishop’s blocker. 
• Joseph capitalized on a Tigres turnover at 7:51 of the middle frame, wristing a shot past Tremblay to make it 2-1 Sea Dogs. 
• Highmore netted his second goal of the night at 10:09, firing a shot past Tremblay to extend Saint John's lead to 3-1. 
• The Sea Dogs then got into some penalty trouble and the Tigres were able to capitalize. At 17:03,  Kosorenkov tapped home a loose puck to make it 3-2. 
• The Tigres pulled Tremblay late in the third and were able to even the contest at 3-3 with 43.7 second left as Goulet slid a loose puck past a downed Bishop. 
• In the OT there was lots of back and forth action but it was Kosorenkov that fired the game winner past Bishop at 2:21. 
• Nathan Noel missed the game after suffering an upper body injury on Wednesday. 
• Luke Green moved up to play wing with Spencer Smallman and Bokondji Imama. 
• Joe Veleno once again took warmup but did not play. He continues to get closer to a return.
• Highmore picked up his 200th career point on his first goal of the night. He ended the game with a goal and two assists.
• Joseph scored his league leading 25th goal of the season and extended his point streak to 18 games. 

LINEUP

Tonight's lineup vs the Victoriaville Tigres - Luke Green will be joining the forwards tonight #PortCityRise #TeamDK pic.twitter.com/BgtnKwR6eX

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) December 8, 2016

SCRATCHES
Nathan Noel (upper body), Joe Veleno (lower body), John Warren (upper body), Bryson Michel (upper body) and Vincent Martineau (healthy).

TURNING POINT
The Sea Dogs weren’t able to find the empty net and the Tigres’ Alexandre Goulet was able to tie the game with under a minute to play. That set the stage for the Tigres' OT winner.

SN PLAYERS OF THE GAME
1. Matthew Highmore
2. Alex Bishop
3. Felix Lauzon

TWEET OF THE GAME  
It was one of those nights.

Odd note from the @QMJHL tonight. @NHLJets draft pick Luke Green playing up front with Spencer Smallman and Bokondji Imama for @SJSeaDogs

— Kris Abbott (@EastlinkKris) December 8, 2016

NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs return to action this Sunday for the annual Teddy Bear Toss game where they’ll take on the visiting Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. Game time is 3 p.m.