Recap: Sea Dogs win 5-4

FINAL: Saint John 5, Bathurst 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - Brady Burns scored what proved to be the winner at 3:22 of the third period to give the Saint John Sea Dogs a 5-4 victory over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Wednesday at TD Station.

The Sea Dogs came out with a strong first period, outshooting the Titan 23-11. Overall at even strength, this was one of Saint John's better performances of the year - but penalties were costly.

All four of Bathurst's goals came on the power play. The visitors had seven man advantage opportunities in the game while Saint John went 0/3. Saint John's penalty kill did, however, come up big in the third period to ultimately secure the win.

This was Saint John's first victory of the season over Bathurst after dropping the first two matches. The win also pushes the Sea Dogs to the .500 mark for the first time this year.

Along with Burns' goal, William Dufour scored twice while Jeremie Poirier and Cole Foston added solo markers. Noah Patenaude made 39 saves to earn his second straight win.

Bathurst had a pair of goals from Liam Kidney and singles from Logan Chisholm and Jacob Melanson. Jan Bednar made 36 saves in the loss.

LINEUP

Burns - Lawrence - Dufour

Savoie - Reynolds - Sapelnikov

Picard - MacDonald - Bezeau

Bowness - Foston - McCluskey

DesRoches - Villeneuve

Poirier - Inniss

Drapeau - Despont

Patenaude

Lemieux

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Ryan Francis (Stockton Heat tryout) and Nico Laforge along with defenseman Hunter Gartley.

DUFOUR: William Dufour is on a hot streak right now. Dufour has scored at least once in five of Saint John's eight games this season and has four goals in his past three games. He's also on a six-game point streak.

VS TITAN: The Sea Dogs earned their first win of the season over the Titan, improving to 1-1-0-1. The Sea Dogs and Titan meet again on Sunday afternoon at the KC Irving Regional Centre.

PATENAUDE: Noah Patenaude made his second straight start and had a second straight strong performance, making 39 saves in the win. It'll be interesting to see how the team rolls with Patenaude and Jonathan Lemieux this weekend with two games less than 24 hours apart.

CROWD: The announced crowd was 1,926 - the smallest crowd in Sea Dogs history. The team set the previous low last week when only 2,197 watched the Sea Dogs take on Cape Breton. Three of the four smallest crowds in team history have taken place this month.

NOTES: The Sea Dogs changed around their second and third lines for this game. Nathan Drapeau was also paired with Vincent Despont, breaking up the usual combo of Drapeau/Inniss... before the game, Sea Dogs head coach Gordie Dwyer was presented with his championship ring for helping Team Canada win gold at the Under-18 World Championship. Dwyer was an assistant coach... linesman Jack Fitzpatrick did not suit up for the game, meaning the match was worked by one linesman and two referees... Saint John's 23 shots in the first period were the most by any team in a first period this season... Brady Burns has points in every game this season... Cole Foston scored his first goal as a Sea Dog... William Dufour had eight shots and Jeremie Poirier seven.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Moncton Wildcats on Saturday at 7 p.m.