Recap: Sea Dogs lose 6-1

FINAL: Saint John 1, Rimouski 6

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

RIMOUSKI, Que. - The Saint John Sea Dogs had a rough ending to their final Quebec road trip of the regular season.

The Sea Dogs rebounded from a rough opening period but played catchup all game, never leading in a 6-1 loss to the Rimouski Oceanic. The defeat ends Saint John's winning streak at four games. This was the team's first loss since the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League returned from its extended pause.

Frederic Brunet, Alexander Gaudio, Luka Verreault, Mael St-Denis, Ludovic Soucy and Jacob Mathieu all scored for Rimouski. Gabriel Robert made 32 stops in the win.

Josh Lawrence scored Saint John's lone goal. Nikolas Hurtubise made 25 stops in the loss.

After a rough first period that saw the Oceanic outshoot the Sea Dogs 15-7 and lead 2-0, Saint John rebounded in the second by outshooting Rimouski 15-4 - but trailed 3-1 entering the third.

Trailing 4-1, the Sea Dogs pulled Hurtubise with over five minutes remaining in the third. Soucy scored into the empty net at 15:15 to make it 5-1. Mathieu scored a power play goal at 18:32 to make it a 6-1 final.

LINEUP

Burns - Lawrence - Dufour

Reynolds - Daoust - Ansons

Trenhold - MacDonald - Bezeau

Picard - Chantler - Blagden

Sevigny - Villeneuve

Kuznetsov - Poirier

Drapeau - DesRoches

Hurtubise

Couture

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Noah Patenaude (injury); defenseman Vincent Despont (healthy); and forwards Ryan Francis (injury) and Marshall Lessard (injury). Saint John had seven defensemen listed on their pre-game lineup sheet with Despont being the final scratch. Despont has yet to play since the restart.

STREAKS: William Dufour's seven-game goal streak and 20-game point streak both came to an end. Vincent Sevigny's five-game road goal scoring streak and Jeremie Poirier's five-game road assist streak also came to an end.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Saint John was not awarded a single power play in this game. Rimouski went 2/5 on the man advantage.

DELAY: There was a lengthy delay less than a minute into the third period due to an issue with one of the doors on the Rimouski bench. The game, which started at 8:30 p.m. Atlantic, ended up taking two hours and 39 minutes to complete.

NOTES: This was Saint John's first trip to Rimouski since Jan. 28, 2020... Oceanic leading scorer Xavier Cormier remained out of the lineup... a rough night for CHL TV with most of the first period missed due to technical difficulties... former Sea Dogs forward Alex Drover had two assists in this game... Jeremie Poirier got shaken up in the third period but stayed in the game... the Oceanic ended a three-game losing streak... Yan Kuznetsov had six shots and three hits... Cam MacDonald had six hits... Saint John won 47 of 74 faceoffs.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Halifax next Friday to face the Mooseheads at 7 p.m.