The Sea Dogs struggled to generate and sustain offence in a 3-2 defeat to the Charlottetown Islanders at Eastlink Centre, dropping yet another one-goal game. The loss pushes the Isles, who have now won three straight, ahead of Saint John in the standings.
Saint John has now lost four straight one goal games. Thursday's was similar to the other's - the Sea Dogs didn't play all that badly nor did they play absolutely amazing. But they matched their opponent only to fall by a single goal. The Dogs just can't break out of this slump at the moment.
Adding sting to this loss is that Saint John was outscored by the league's worst offensive team - a team that was missing it's top two scorers on Thursday due to illness and injury.
You have to give the Isles some credit for how they played in this game - and the fact that they have now won three straight.
Cayse Ton, Pascal Aquin and Matthew Grouchy had goals for Charlottetown. Matthew Welsh made 26 saves in the win.
Cedric Pare and Nathan Larose scored for the Sea Dogs. Alex D'Orio made 21 stops in the loss.
It was a fairly uneventful first period until Ton opened the scoring at 15:53. A pass from near the blue line found Ton who quickly entered the offensive zone, slipped through some Saint John defenders and beat D'Orio upstairs with a wrist shot.
Alexis Girard took his second penalty of the period late in the first. Then, at 19:39, Joe Veleno joined him in the box to give the Islanders a lengthy five-on-three advantage. Charlottetown had 31 seconds of five-on-three time to start the second but could not connect.
Shortly after stepping out of the box, Veleno and Pare had a two-on-one. Veleno kept the puck and feathered a perfect pass to Pare who beat a stretched out Welsh at 1:47, tying things up at 1-1.
Tyler Smith was called for hooking at 2:34. On the ensuing power play at 2:55, a Taylor Egan shot was deflected in front by Aquin, putting Charlottetown back in front.
The Sea Dogs tied things up at 2-2 at 6:21. Larose crossed the line and fired a wrist shot through an Islanders defenceman. The puck seemed to hit the defender and fool Welsh upstairs. It was Larose's first QMJHL goal.
The goals kept coming. At 7:21, Grouchy ripped a wrister past D'Orio, putting Charlottetown in front yet again.
Saint John had two power plays in the third period but couldn't generate much of anything on either. The Sea Dogs finished 0/4 on the power play.
In the final minute with D'Orio on the bench, Safin fired a one time shot that was stopped nicely by Welsh. That proved to be Saint John's best chance to tie things up.
LINEUP
SCRATCHES#SJSeaDogs will go with the same lineup they had on Sunday.— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) October 19, 2017
Lineup brought to you by @CantrburyDental. #AlwaysWearYourMouthguard pic.twitter.com/xSwpidMQZN
Saint John went with the same lineup as they did on Sunday (with the exception of Alex D'Orio starting over Matt Williams). The Sea Dogs were without defenceman Samuel Duchesne (healthy); and forwards Cole Reginato (healthy), Kevin Gursoy (healthy), Samuel Leblanc (healthy) and Alexandre Lafreniere (healthy).
NOTES
With Cole Reginato scratched and Cody Porter released, the Sea Dogs dressed just one overage player for this game... the Islanders were missing some key players, including their two leading scorers in Adam Marsh (flu) and Saku Vesterinen (injured)... another assist for Joe Veleno. He now has nine in 12 games... pretty good announced crowd of 2,252 for a Thursday night game in Charlottetown... the Islanders have four wins this season - two of those have come against Saint John... the Sea Dogs now sit 17th overall. Shawinigan is below them as the two franchises seem to be forever stuck in the same cycle.
NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs host the Chicoutimi Sagueneens on Saturday at 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment