Monday, May 8, 2017

The Sea Dogs have been scoring

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs didn't have a whole lot of trouble with Samuel Montembeault and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada defence this past weekend.

Before the President Cup Final, the Armada goaltender had allowed 27 goals in 14 playoff matches. In Games 1 and 2 of the Final, the Sea Dogs were able to get a total on nine goals past the Florida Panthers prospect.

The five goals Montembeault allowed in Game 1 were the most he had allowed in a game since Dec. 30.

Montembeault and the Armada are used to playing teams with high powered offences, playing Bathurst (third in goals scored during the regular season) in round two and Charlottetown (first in goals scored) in round three. Saint John had the second best offence in the regular season.

Blainville-Boisbriand has been able to rebound from rough loses and bad stretches throughout the post-season, and they'll need to do so again if they want to edge the Dogs. The team has lost three straight games just once post-season, allowing four or more goals in each of those loses.

The Armada are no doubt happy to be heading home where they've lost just once in these playoffs. On the flip side, Saint John has lost just once on the road.

While the Armada defence will no doubt try and improve for Tuesday's Game 3, their offence has also had a difficult time in this series. Alex Barre-Boulet, the league's leading playoff scorer, has just one assist while Pierre-Luc Dubois has been held pointless. The team's power play, which had been so good in this post-season, is 0/10.

Some other notes...
  • Julien Gauthier has been on fire in the President Cup Final, scoring four goals and adding two assists in the first two games. Meanwhile, Matthew Highmore has two goals and two assists and Mathieu Joseph has two goals and three assists.
  • As mentioned on the Sportsnet broadcast, Joseph has scored seven shorthanded goals in the regular season and playoffs combined. The Armada have scored five as a team this year.
  • An update on Callum Booth's playoff numbers: 14-1-1, 1.81 GAA, .917 SV%.
  • The league has not updated its suspensions and fines list yet, but there are no doubt a few plays up for review. Along with the Gauthier hit, Joseph took a pretty bad elbow to the face that went uncalled for.

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