Recap: Sea Dogs lose 8-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Cape Breton 8

SYDNEY, NS - It wasn't as heartbreaking as Saturday night, but the Saint John Sea Dogs suffered another rough loss to the Cape Breton Eagles for a second straight day.

The Sea Dogs were little match for the Eagles who cruised to an 8-3 win on Sunday afternoon at Centre 200. The win pushed Cape Breton to a perfect 4-0 start to the season while Saint John has been pushed back to the .500 mark with a 2-2 record.

Sunday's match didn't have the dramatics of Saturday's - which saw the Eagles erase a five-goal deficit and win 6-5 - but the Eagles appeared as dominant as they did for much of Saturday's contest. Saint John simply had no answer, creating very few quality scoring chances and struggling to win puck battles.

Shawn Boudrias and Ivan Ivan both scored twice for the Eagles while singles came from Derek Gentile, Egor Sokolov, Felix Lafrance and Shaun Miller. William Grimard made 21 stops in the win.

Joshua Roy, Jeremie Poirier and Nicolas Guay all scored for Saint John. Noah Patenaude made 37 stops in his first QMJHL regular season appearance.

LINEUP

SCRATCHES: Saint John opted to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for this game. The Sea Dogs were without forwards Maxim Cajkovic (injured), Matt Gould (healthy), Julian Vander Voet (healthy) and James White (suspended) along with defensemen Patrick Musico (injured).

NOTABLE MISS: Eagles goaltender Kevin Mandolese, who was pulled in Saturday's game, did not dress on Sunday.

FIRST START: Sea Dogs rookie goaltender Noah Patenaude made his first career regular season start and it definitely didn't go as well as it could have, allowing eight goals on 45 shots. There wasn't much he could do on a lot of the goals - and facing 45 shots in a debut isn't ideal. Patenaude also had a skate issue in the first couple minutes of the game.

DEBUTS: There were a few other debuts for the Sea Dogs on Sunday: defenseman Jordan Spadafore made his season debut after serving a four-game suspension he received in the pre-season and forward Alexis Belisle also made his season debut after missing the first few games with an injury.

SECOND GOAL: First overall pick Joshua Roy netted his second goal of the season.

Joshua Roy gets his second goal in the Q after a quick move off the rush. #2021NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/kjojQtx8WA

— Andy Lehoux (@Andylehoux1) September 29, 2019

LOT OF SHOTS: The Sea Dogs entered the game with a league high average of 44 shots against per game. They allowed 45 on Sunday, keeping that average up there. Sunday's contest included a 21 shot third period by Cape Breton.

NOTES: Olivier DesRoches took a shot to the mid-section early in the first period and was in a lot of pain leaving the ice. He would return... Dawson Stairs had another assist, giving him five points in four games... Charlie DesRoches had two assists... import Ivan Ivan recorded his first and second QMJHL goals... Ryan Francis recorded four assists... Saint John recorded just eight "dangerous shots."

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Islanders in Charlottetown on Thursday at 7 p.m.