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| Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
A slow start proved to be costly for the Sea Dogs in a 4-2 season opening loss to the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday at TD Station.
The Islanders scored twice in the first 8:13 of the game and took advantage of a seemingly sluggish Saint John team. The Sea Dogs got better as the period - and the game - went along but were never able to even the score. They got within one late in the third but that would be as close as they'd get.
The Sea Dogs, who were missing their best offensive weapon in Ryan Francis, also struggled on the power play, failing to score on five opportunities.
William Trudeau, Noah Laaouan, Brett Budgell and Xavier Simoneau scored for Charlottetown. Jacob Goobie made 27 saves in the win
Josh Lawrence and Brady Burns scored for Saint John. Jonathan Lemieux made 25 stops in the loss.
The Islanders led 2-0 after the opening period thanks to goals from Trudeau and Laaouan. Saint John had three power plays and outshot Charlottetown 13-10 in the first but it was the Isles getting the better of the chances.
LINEUP
The Sea Dogs, who were missing their best offensive weapon in Ryan Francis, also struggled on the power play, failing to score on five opportunities.
William Trudeau, Noah Laaouan, Brett Budgell and Xavier Simoneau scored for Charlottetown. Jacob Goobie made 27 saves in the win
Josh Lawrence and Brady Burns scored for Saint John. Jonathan Lemieux made 25 stops in the loss.
The Islanders led 2-0 after the opening period thanks to goals from Trudeau and Laaouan. Saint John had three power plays and outshot Charlottetown 13-10 in the first but it was the Isles getting the better of the chances.
Charlottetown took a 3-0 lead at 8:39 of the second period when Budgell put a rebound past Lemieux in close.
Lawrence would get the Dogs on the board at 11:13 of the middle frame. William Dufour found the wide open Lawrence down low who beat Goobie top corner to make it a 3-1 contest.
Saint John got within one at 11:53 of the third. The Islanders turned the puck over in the corner and it found an open Burns in front. That made it a 3-2 game. Moments later, it looked as though the Sea Dogs had tied the game but the goal was called off with the whistle blowing due to Foston taking a tripping penalty.
Saint John got within one at 11:53 of the third. The Islanders turned the puck over in the corner and it found an open Burns in front. That made it a 3-2 game. Moments later, it looked as though the Sea Dogs had tied the game but the goal was called off with the whistle blowing due to Foston taking a tripping penalty.
The Sea Dogs pulled Lemieux with one-minute remaining. Just 7.2 seconds after taking a timeout, Simoneau used his reach and scored an empty net goal to make it a 4-2 final.
LINEUP
MacDonald - Reynolds - Bezeau
Burns - Lawrence - Dufour
Picard - Savoie - Sapelnikov
Foston - Laforge - McCluskey
DesRoches - Villeneuve
Poirier - Despont
Drapeau - Inniss
Lemieux
Patenaude
SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Ryan Francis (Calgary Flames camp), Adam Bowness and Gavin Watt along with defenseman Hunter Gartley.
DEBUTS: Forwards Evgeny Sapelnikov and Nico Laforge along with defenseman Vincent Despont made their QMJHL debuts. William Dufour, Olivier Picard, Cole Foston and Jonathan Lemieux all made their Sea Dogs regular season debuts.
PRE-GAME: With this being Saint John's home opener, the entire roster was introduced. There was also a video presentation focused on the team's successful 2022 Memorial Cup bid which featured Scott McCain, Frank McKenna, Gerard Gallant and others. Former Dogs captain - and 2011 Memorial Cup champion - Mike Thomas performed the ceremonial puck drop.
Mike Thomas dropping the puck on the season. pic.twitter.com/xZQTBZvxFO
— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) October 1, 2021
NEW THINGS: This was the first game for the new lighting, boards and glass at TD Station, all of which were installed over the past couple months. The lights are much better for photo taking. They also make the corner seats of the lower bowl appear much darker. The lights blink when Saint John scores - a common feature in many other buildings around the league.
CHL TV ISSUES: If you purchased this game on CHL TV, you're probably not all that happy. This needs some fixing.
Here’s the video. pic.twitter.com/X9VQMrUkWE
— Denis Leblanc (@DenisL_1981) October 2, 2021
NOTES: The new in-game host is named Ian... paper programs made their return... the Moosehead Light Ice Bar has been reconstructed but was not open... the start of the game was delayed for a few minutes due to an issue getting the net pegs into the ice... Jonathan Lemieux is still sporting his Val-d'Or Foreurs pads... there was a marriage proposal during the second period and the yes was confirmed... Josh Lawrence also scored in Saint John's 2018-19 season opener... Ryan Francis was the only player missing from this game due to an NHL camp... have to wonder if some of Saint John's NHL campers, who just returned over the past day or two, were feeling some fatigue... Saint John outhit Charlottetown 14-7. Olivier Picard had five hits... Islanders defenseman Lukas Cormier had six shots... the Sea Dogs and Islanders meet three more times this month... attendance was only 2,626. This was the first Saint John home game allowed to be at 100% capacity since March 2020.
HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs and Islanders meet again tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Eastlink Centre.
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