Recap: Sea Dogs lose 6-2

FINAL: Saint John 2, Halifax 6

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

HALIFAX - It was a game to forget for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Halifax Mooseheads scored three times in the first 7:43 of Thursday night's contest at Scotiabank Centre, leading the home side to a 6-2 win over the Sea Dogs.

After a rough start, the rest of the game didn't as badly for the Sea Dogs, but they looked quite flat and were often sloppy. They registered a respectable 28 shots but only 13 were considered dangerous. Saint John has scored just three goals over their past two games following Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

Jacob Chantler and Vincent Sevigny scored for Saint John. Thomas Couture was pulled after allowing three goals on six shots in the first period. Nikolas Hurtubise made 16 stops in relief.

Zachary Beauregard and Zachary L'Heureux each scored a pair of goals for Halifax while singles came from Liam Welsh and Evan Boucher. Mathis Rousseau made 26 saves in the win.

Welsh opened the scoring just 2:34 into the first period. Yan Kuznetsov had the puck behind the goal and sent a blind pass in front that was easily picked up by Welsh and put behind Couture.

Halifax doubled their lead at 4:14 when Beauregard put in a rebound. Then at 7:43, L'Heureux was in front and deposited a rebound, giving the Mooseheads a 3-0 advantage and ending Couture's night.

Saint John got on the board at 13:05 when William Villeneuve fired a pass from the sideboards that found Chantler in front, making it 3-1. That would be the lone bright spot of a sloppy opening period by the Dogs.

The Mooseheads kept rolling in the second period when L'Heureux fired a bullet from the top of the circle over the shoulder of Hurtubise, making it 4-1. Then at 7:40 on a power play, an Elliot Desnoyers shot was stopped, Markus Vidicek picked up the rebound and passed to Boucher who scored to make it 5-1.

Not long after a William Dufour goal was called back due to an offside, Sevigny fired a bomb from the point past Rousseau at 17:09 to make it a 5-2 game after two.

Beauregard scored a power play goal with just 32 seconds remaining in the third period to give the Mooseheads a 6-2 victory.

LINEUP

Daoust - Lawrence - Dufour

Burns - Ansons - Francis

Reynolds - MacDonald - Bezeau

Picard - Trenholm - Chantler

Sevigny - Villeneuve

Kuznetsov - Poirier

Drapeau - DesRoches

Despont

Couture

Hurtubise

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Noah Patenaude (injury); defenseman Vincent Despont (healthy); and forwards Marshall Lessard (injury) and Nicholas Blagden (game three of a 10-game suspension). The Sea Dogs had seven defensemen listed on their lineup sheet with Despont the final scratch.

PULLED: Thomas Couture entered the game with a 3-0 record to go along with a 2.00 goals against average and .912 save percentage in his first three games with Saint John. Things did not go as well on Thursday as he allowed three goals on six shots before being pulled by Gordie Dwyer.

CALLED BACK: It looked as though William Dufour had scored his 31st goal of the season with 5:16 remaining in the first period but the goal was called back after an offside review. Dufour has not scored a goal in back-to-back games for just the fourth time this season.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: This was the fourth meeting of the season between the Sea Dogs and Mooseheads and this was the first result that was not decided by a single goal. Saint John had won the three previous meetings.

NOTES: Connor Trenholm returned from a two-game suspension... Liam Welsh's first period goal was the first of his QMJHL career... Jacob Chantler scored his first goal (and first point) since Dec. 12... Zachary L'Heureux, who recently returned from a six-game suspension, scored his first goal since Dec. 18... Evan Boucher now has 10 goals in nine games since joining the Mooseheads as a free agent... Jordan Dumais had a 13-game point streak come to an end... this game was much less physical/nasty than last Friday's in Halifax... attendance was 3,000 - the maximum allowed at Scotiabank Centre under Nova Scotia's current COVID-19 guidelines... Vince Williams called the game on 93 CFBC in place of John Moore.

In the radio broadcast booth at the @scotiabankcentre for @sjseadogs vs @hfx_mooseheads tonight. I’ll have the play
by play call alongside @The_DrewM on 93 CFBC! Puck drop 7. pic.twitter.com/9Cc6dbHQ1F

— Vincent M. Williams ✊🏿 (@VinceMWill) February 24, 2022

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Saturday at 4 p.m.