Recap: Sea Dogs win 8-1

FINAL: Charlottetown 1, Saint John 8

FREDERICTON -  Two Frederictonians combined for four goals in the Saint John Sea Dogs' 8-1 victory over the Charlottetown Islanders on Wednesday at the Aitken Centre.

Josh Lawrence scored a hat trick while Peter Reynolds netted a solo marker. Lawrence also had an assist to give him a four-point night.

Charles Savoie, Kanaga Mangala, Loik Miville and Nico Laforge also scored. Carter McCluskey registered three assists.

Noah Patenaude, in his first pre-season game of the year, made 27 saves in the first 40 minutes. Ventsislav Shingarov made 16 stops in the third period.

Charlottetown's goal came from Daniel Kline. Paolo Marabello allowed a goal on 22 shots in the first half of the game while Jacob Leblanc allowed seven goals on 28 shots in the second half.

The victory improved the Sea Dogs to 4-0 this pre-season.

Savoie opened the scoring at 3:36 of the opening frame, giving Saint John an early lead. The Sea Dogs were up 6-0 on the shot clock in the early goings but then surrendered the next eight shots.

The Islanders tied the game at 10:26 of the second period when Kline beat Patenaude down low.

The Sea Dogs retook the lead at 16:30. Miville found a streaking Lawrence who beat Leblanc at the top of the crease. 1:07 later, Mangala netted his first of the pre-season to put the Sea Dogs ahead 3-1.

Miville scored his first at 19:14. Nico Laforge was along the boards and found a wide open Miville to make it 4-1 Saint John through 40 minutes.

Lawrence scored at 5:18 of the third and then Reynolds connected at 7:34 to make it 6-1.

Lawrence completed his hat trick at 11:33. Then at 19:46, McCluskey was stopped on a breakaway but Laforge was there to put in the rebound, making it an 8-1 final.

LINEUP

MacDonald - Bezeau - Reynolds

McCluskey - Lawrence - Elie

Savoie - Laforge - Miville

Woods - Watt - Mangala

Drapeau - Despont

Casey - Grenier

Bilodeau - Roode

Gartley

Patenaude

Shingarov

SCRATCHES: Goaltenders Jonathan Lemieux and Olivier Brideau; forwards William Dufour, Brady Burns, Elliot Simard, Ryan Francis and Jack O'Blenis; and defensemen Brady Stone, Charlie DesRoches, William Villeneuve, Christopher Inniss, Ian Dickie and Jeremie Poirier.

DEBUT: Goaltender Noah Patenaude made his pre-season debut. The team's previous three pre-season games had all been split by Olivier Brideau and Ventsislav Shingarov. Patenaude looked pretty solid,  playing the first 40 minutes and allowing just one goal on 27 shots. 

PUCK DROP: Before the game, UNB Reds and Sea Dogs alumni Matt Murphy and Oliver Cooper - both Fredericton natives - performed the ceremonial puck drop. Both also played with the ECHL champion Fort Wayne Komets last season.

GAME ON: @UNBMHockey alum @ocooper17 and @Mpmurphy22 drop the puck in the ceremonial face-off ahead of tonight’s pre-season game between @SJSeaDogs and @IslandersHKY #goredsgo pic.twitter.com/ai1eHUXjuf

— UNB Reds (@UNBAthletics) August 25, 2021

GARTLEY: Sea Dogs defenseman Hunter Gartley was given a match and major penalty for a high cross check on Charlottetown's Sam Bowness, who moments earlier hit Loik Miville from behind. The Sea Dogs would kill off what turned out to be just under three minutes of power play time.

MCCLUSKEY: Carter McCluskey just keeps putting up points this pre-season. With three assists in this game, McCluskey now has four goals and four assists in four exhibitions contests.

NOTES: It was hot outside... Cam MacDonald and Sam Bowness dropped the gloves just 90 seconds into the game for what proved to be a quick tilt... Gordie Dwyer and Stefan Legein ran the Sea Dogs bench once again... defenseman Benjamin Roode oddly led the Sea Dogs in shots with seven... Nathan Drapeau and Natan Grenier each had two assists... the attendance was 1,197... this was the second of four "home" games the Sea Dogs are playing at the Aitken Centre this pre-season. They'll return on Sept. 10 and Sept. 18.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Titan in Bathurst on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.