Recap: Sea Dogs win 6-2

FINAL: Moncton 2, Saint John 6

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - Special teams led the Saint John Sea Dogs to a 6-2 win over the Moncton Wildcats on Tuesday night at TD Station.

Saint John went 1-for-3 on the power play (unofficially 2-for-3 as Saint John scored with the man still sitting in the box) and killed off 3-of-4 penalties to earn a victory in the opening game of the QMJHL's nine-game round-robin tournament between the the three New Brunswick-based clubs.

Brady Burns' man advantage marker at 9:37 of the middle frame proved be the game-winner. Nicholas Girouard, Jeremie Poirier, Leighton Carruthers, Peter Reynolds and Riley Bezeau also scored for Saint John. Zachary Emond made 22 saves in the win.

Francis Langlois and Jacob Hudson scored for Moncton. Vincent Filion made 27 saves in the loss.

The first period was fairly even despite Saint John doubling Moncton on the shot clock, 14-7. Girouard opened the scoring at 14:44 after Josh Lawrence fed him the puck following a Wildcats turnover behind the net. Langlois tied the game at 15:56, firing a sharp angle shot that banked off Emond and in.

Poirier put Saint John back in front just 2:07 into the second period. The d-man carried the puck into the zone and fired a no-look shot past Filion from the high slot. Hudson would tie the game up again at 5:06, ripping a shot from the top of the circle while on a man advantage.

Burns put Saint John ahead at 9:37, beating Filion with a low shot from the circle. Just 21 seconds later, Carruthers scored while being held up on a breakaway to make it 4-2 and keep pushing momentum in Saint John's favour.

The Sea Dogs produced a strong penalty kill late in the second to maintain their two-goal advantage.

At 3:54 of the third, Reynolds redirected a Poirier shot to make it 5-2 just as a Moncton penalty ended. Soon after, Saint John killed off nearly four minutes of penalties to stay up by three.

Bezeau scored a 16:39 of the third to make it a 6-2 final.

LINEUP

Burns - Lawrence - Girouard

MacDonald - Reynolds - Francis

Alchorn - Carruthers - Bezeau

McCluskey - Hughes

Poirier - DesRoches

Dow - Villeneuve

Drapeau - Inniss

Casey

Emond

Patenaude

SCRATCHES: Forwards Vladislav Kotkov (injury), Charles Savoie (injury) and Liam Leonard (healthy); and defensemen Hunter Gartley (injury), Kale McCallum (healthy) and Jan Hampl (not arriving).

CHANGES: Veterans Ryan Francis, Christopher Inniss, Nicholas Girouard and Zachary Emond all returned to the Saint John lineup after missing Saturday's game. Brandon Casey appeared in his first game since April 11. Overager Liam Leonard was Saint John's final scratch.

HURTING: Sam McKinney, Philippe Daoust, Vincent Labelle and Yoan Loshing all remained out of the Wildcats lineup due to injury. Anthony Hamel and Gabriel Bernier returned. 

POIRIER: Jeremie Poirier continues to burn the Wildcats. The defenseman had three goals and 14 assists against the Wildcats in the regular season. He had a goal, an assist and five shots in this game.

🚨GOAL🚨
Poirier no-looks and FIRES! It's 2-1! #CofRed pic.twitter.com/lCpk2TCaUt

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) April 20, 2021

FILION STARTS: Rookie netminder Vincent Filion got the start in this game instead of overage netminder Dakota Lund-Cornish. The two had been splitting goaltending duties quite a bit down the stretch. Filion made 27 saves in the loss.

BIG SCRUM: Something we haven't seen a lot from the Sea Dogs this season is big scrums after whistles. One took place after Riley Bezeau's third period goal which saw Jacob Hudson given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for being an aggressor. It's believed that will carry a suspension as well.

LONG WAIT: Not including the 2017 Memorial Cup, this was Saint John's first playoff game since May 10, 2017 and first home playoff games since May 6, 2017. The 5,872 in attendance at Harbour Station that night was a bit different than Tuesday's crowd.

Pic from Saint John’s last home playoff game on May 6, 2017 🥲 pic.twitter.com/ptN96IAGjx

— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) April 20, 2021

NOTES: On-ice officials were wearing masks. The QMJHL mandated masks for the playoffs... no penalties were called in the first period... Zachary Alchorn and Charlie DesRoches both had a pair of assists... hits were 21-21. That's a lot in this league... Cam MacDonald had six hits... this win ended a four-game losing streak at TD Station... the attendance was 1,423.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Titan in Bathurst on Thursday night at 7 p.m.