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| Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
Despite outshooting the Moncton Wildcats by a large margin for much the night, Saint John's couldn't overcome some sloppy defensive play, resulting in a 6-2 loss on Wednesday night at TD Station.
The loss was Saint John's first since returning to game action last week. A five-game home winning streak also came to an end.
The Sea Dogs simply looked off on Wednesday. Despite the shot total, the offense didn't seem to be clicking the same way it was in the previous three games. Defensively, the Sea Dogs simply made too many errors - and it cost them badly in this game.
The match got off to a promising start for Saint John with Ryan Francis scoring on a shorthanded breakaway at 3:45 of the opening period. At 7:22, Moncton responded with a shorthanded marker of their own when Jacob Stewart capitalized on a Saint John turnover in the neutral zone.
The Wildcats took their first lead of the game at 19:37 of the opening frame when Maxim Barbashev scored on a play that began off a defensive miscue behind the Sea Dogs net.
At 16:12 of the second, Peter Reynolds tied the game off a nice redirect at the top of the crease. Just 15 seconds later, Gabriel Bernier wired a shot from the slot past Zachary Emond to give the 'Cats a 3-2 lead entering the third.
Mathis Cloutier scored on a power play at 4:21 of the third, depositing a rebound. Jacob Hudson then scored at 9:47 to give the 'Cats a 5-2 lead, keeping the puck on a two-on-one and firing a perfectly placed shot past Emond.
Philippe Daoust iced the game at 13:07 after picking off a William Villeneuve pass near the blue line.
Saint John outshot Moncton 28-12 through the first 40 minutes. In the third, shots were 13-5 in favour of the Wildcats.
Emond made 19 stops in the loss. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 31 saves in the win.
LINEUP
Francis - Reynolds - Kotkov
Leonard - MacDonald - Bezeau
Burns - Lawrence - Girouard
Hughes - Carruthers - Savoie
Drapeau - Inniss
Poirier - Villeneuve
Casey - McCallum
Emond
Patenaude
SCRATCHES: Forwards Zachary Alchorn (healthy) and Carter McCluskey (healthy); along with defensemen Charlie DesRoches (healthy), Hunter Gartley (injured) and Jan Hampl (not arrived).
DEBUT: Rookie Simon Hughes made his long awaited QMJHL debut on Wednesday night. Hughes was a second-round pick of Saint John in 2020 and joined the club just before the league shutdown in November. As expected, he didn't see a ton of ice time in this game.
SHORTHANDED: The first period featured both teams scoring while shorthanded. Saint John's, scored by Ryan Francis, was the club's first shorty of the of the season. They were the last team in the QMJHL to score while shorthanded this season. The Wildcats, meanwhile, were the last team to allow a shorthanded goal.
TOP LINE: After a few big games, Saint John's top line of Peter Reynolds, Ryan Francis and Vladislav Kotkov had a much more low key night. The trio was on the ice for Reynolds' second period goal. Francis had a goal and an assist while Kotkov was held pointless for the first time this season.
BIG NIGHTS... AGAIN: Maxim Barbashev now has three goals against Saint John over the past two games. Philippe Daoust, meanwhile, has three goals and two assists in six games against the Dogs.
VS MONCTON: The Sea Dogs are now 3-3-0-0 against the rebuilding Wildcats (and barely escaped Saturday's game with a victory). While it's obvious the Dogs have not played their best hockey against Moncton this season, you have to give this Wildcats team credit. They're not going to go down easy.
ST. PATRICK'S DAY: The only Patricks to ever play for the Sea Dogs? Patrick Leask, Patrick Musico and, of course, Michael Kirkpatrick. This was Saint John's sixth ever game on St. Patrick's Day and... maybe they should try not to schedule games on this date in the future.
2006: 6-1 loss at Lewiston
2012: 7-4 win at Cape Breton
2013: 8-5 loss at PEI
2017: 6-3 loss at Charlottetown
2018: 8-3 loss at Cape Breton
2021: 6-2 loss vs Moncton
NOTES: Simon Hughes joined Leighton Carruthers, Nathan Drapeau and Hunter Gartley as members of Saint John's 2020 draft class to play for the squad this season... Josh Lawrence was seemingly moved to the fourth line in the second period and saw very little ice time. He returned to his regular line in the third... Peter Reynolds had five shots and all were listed as dangerous... 1,478 was the attendance... the Sea Dogs and Wildcats meet again on Sunday at TD Station.
HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Friday at 7 p.m.
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