RECAP: Sea Dogs lose 5-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Rouyn-Noranda 5
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ROUYN-NORANDA, Que. - A third period comeback fell short for the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday.

The Sea Dogs, down 4-0 through 40 minutes, scored three times in a 1:14 stretch in the third period, getting within one of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The Huskies scored not long after the flurry of goals, giving the home side some insurance and ultimately a 5-3 victory.

Saint John dropped all three games of this Quebec trip and have now lost 11 straight road games. With the Val-d'Or Foreurs picking up a point on Saturday, the Sea Dogs now sit seven points back of the league's final spot with 12 games remaining in the regular season.

The Huskies led 2-0 after one and 4-0 after two on Saturday. Mathieu Boucher, Samuel Naud, Tommy Beaudoin and Alexis Arseneault all scored for Rouyn-Noranda.

The Sea Dogs began to turn things around at 6:26 of the third when Ben Reid scored to get Saint John on the board. Then at 7:09, Robbie Burt scored to make it 4-2 which was followed by an Ostap Safin goal 31 seconds later.

At 8:35, Justin Bergeron scored to put a stop to Saint John's momentum. That would make it a 5-3 final.

Rouyn-Noranda backup goaltender Zachary Emond made 17 saves in the win.

Matthew Williams had a very busy night in net, making 55 saves in the loss. The 60 shots faced and 55 saves made were both career highs.

LINEUP

Here is tonight's lineup for your #SJSeaDogs brought to you by @CantrburyDental #AlwaysWearYourMouthGuard pic.twitter.com/VEnbyIGSco

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) February 17, 2018

SCRATCHES
The Sea Dogs were without forwards Cedric Pare (upper body), Cole Reginato (lower body), Matt Green (upper body), Landon Quinney (upper body) and Nicholas Deakin-Poot (upper body); and defencemen Brendan O’Reilly (lower body) and Brendan Sibley (upper body).

The Sea Dogs' injury woes are almost comical at this point. Nathan Larose (upper body) was also a late scratch while Yohan Plamondon left the game.

.@SJSeaDogs listed 17 skaters for today's game. Larose (upper body) did not play after warmup. Plamondon (upper body) won't return. 15 left.

— Tim Roszell (@TimGRoszell) February 18, 2018

NOTES
Matthew Williams made his first appearance since Feb. 2. This was his first full game of action since Jan. 27... the Huskies went 2/6 on the power play... Radim Salda had another two assist game... Ostap Safin now has goals in five straight games... Saint John has an odd stretch of games coming up, playing back-to-back mid-week home games on Wednesday and Thursday.

NEXT GAME
The Sea Dogs take on the Moncton Wildcats on Wednesday night at Harbour Station.