 |
| Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
Cam MacDonald scored at 7:19 of the first overtime frame to give Saint John the victory. Playing continuous overtime in a meaningless playoff game seemed like an oddly fitting way to end this extremely odd season of Sea Dogs hockey.
Both the Sea Dogs and Wildcats had already been eliminated from playoff contention the night before. The Acadie-Bathurst Titan won the New Brunswick round-robin playoff tournament and advance to play the Charlottetown Islanders in the Maritimes Division final.
While Sunday's game was essentially meaningless, it was definitely played with some heart. It wasn't the most intense game of the year but it was far from a pre-season type feel.
The game itself felt like the entire Saint John/Moncton season series compiled into one game. There were leads gained, leads lost, momentum swings, good special teams, and bad special teams. The game left you scratching your head at times - just like most meetings between these two this season.
MacDonald, William Villeneuve, Brady Burns, Ryan Francis, Jeremie Poirier and Charles Savoie all scored for Saint John. Zachary Emond made 31 saves in the win.
Maxim Barbashev, Charles-Antoine Pilote, Mathis Cloutier, Alexis Daniel and Gabriel Bernier scored for Moncton. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 40 saves in the loss.
LINEUP
Francis - Reynolds - Kotkov
Burns - Lawrence - Girouard
Savoie - MacDonald - Alchorn
Leonard - Carruthers - Bezeau
Poirier - Villeneuve
McCallum - DesRoches
Drapeau - Inniss
Emond
Patenaude
SCRATCHES: Forwards Carter McCluskey (healthy) and Simon Hughes (healthy) along with defensemen Hunter Gartley (injured), Brandon Casey (healthy), Sam Dow and Jan Hampl (not arrived).
STILL HURTING: The Wildcats ended the round-robin the same way they spent most of the restart: in pain. Sam McKinney, Philippe Daoust, Francis Langlois, Vincent Labelle, Yoan Loshing, Dominic Leblanc and Tristan DeJong all missed Sunday's season finale due to injuries.
FINAL GAME: This was the final junior hockey game for Saint John overagers Zachary Emomd, Vladislav Kotkov and Liam Leonard. On the Moncton side, Jacob Hudson and Dakota Lund-Cornish played their last games. Tristan DeJong missed the game with an injury.
ANOTHER START: Speaking of Emond, the netminder started all six of Saint John's round-robin playoff games. He finishes the post-season with a 3-3 record to go along with a 3.67 goals against average and a .867 save percentage.
MEANINGLESS: With the Sea Dogs and Wildcats already eliminated, Sunday's game essentially had no meaning - something that is apparently quite rare in QMJHL round-robin history.
The Q has had round robin formats before- but for the first time in at least 20+ years, that a playoff game will take place with both teams eliminated before it starts.
— Patrick McNeil (@cbepbp) May 2, 2021
Bathurst clinched with OT wins over both teams this weekend. Will play Charlottetown in the Maritime final. https://t.co/DLj7sYjyWq
POIRIER POINTS: Defenseman Jeremie Poirier had a goal and an assist in this game to give him four goals and five assists in six playoff games. His nine points place him first in playoff scoring amongst defensemen.
NOTES: The Wildcats honoured their three overage players before the game... Saint John dressed the same lineup as they did for their previous two games with just a few swaps on the bottom two lines... this was Saint John's first road win of the playoffs and Moncton's first home loss... both teams went to overtime for a second straight game... Josh Lawrence nearly scored the goal of the year in the second period... Brady Burns had seven shots... Saint John won 53 of 90 faceoffs... ridiculous amount of pucks went out of play in this game... like Saturday in Bathurst, players did a casual line of handshakes/fist bumps after the game... the attendance was 2,263.
NEXT GAME: No clue. Probably August/September. Wear a mask and please get vaccinated so we don't have to go through another season of this mess.
No comments:
Post a Comment