Thursday, June 23, 2022

Takeaways from Saint John's 4-3 OT loss

Vincent Ethier/CHL
SAINT JOHN - The first three-on-three overtime in Memorial Cup history was one to remember.

The Saint John Sea Dogs and Edmonton Oil Kings went back-and-forth for just over eight minutes, combining to record 12 shots on net. Edmonton's Jaxsen Wiebe won the game at 8:05, ripping a wrist shot over the shoulder of Saint John netminder Nikolas Hurtubise.

"Fans didn't sit down, did they?" said Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer about the overtime format. "Entertainment wise, it was exciting hockey going back-and-forth. Coaching wise, it's maybe not something I like. I get the format. I think it's fun and I think it's great for the kids. The kids were having fun with it. That was important."

The Canadian Hockey League introduced 20-minute periods of sudden-death, three-on-three overtime for this year's round-robin portion of the Memorial Cup. A new point system was also introduced where teams are awarded three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win and one point for an overtime loss.

The Oil Kings are now 1-1-0 for two points heading into their final round-robin game on Friday against the Hamilton Bulldogs. The Sea Dogs, meanwhile, fell to 1-0-1 for four points and will close out round-robin play on Saturday against the Shawinigan Cataractes.

The first seven minutes of the game were a lot like overtime: back-and-forth with plenty of chances. Saint John went down 2-0 less than five minutes in and then tied the game at 6:26. William Dufour put Saint John up 3-2 with a goal at the 10-minute mark.

"We had a rough start," Dufour said after the game. "They were up 2-0 after five minutes but we bounced back right away and that was good for our team. We showed some character.

"In overtime we had some chances, like myself. I could have finished the game on the 2-on-0 with (Jeremie) Poirier but (Oil Kings goaltender Sebastian) Cossa made a big save and that's why he's drafted first-round NHL. He's a pretty good goalie."

Wiebe tied the game at 3-3 with a power play goal early in the second period. Both teams had some quality scoring chances during the rest of regulation but couldn't connect.

"It was gut-wrenching for our team," Sea Dogs head coach Gardiner MacDougall said of the loss. "We worked so hard. But I thought there were a lot of positives. We knew our opponent would come early and we go down 2-0. Maybe before we wouldn't have the grit to come back but that was an outstanding response to go up 3-2. 

"I thought we had a solid third period. Obviously both goalies played outstanding."

Despite the loss, MacDougall said playing in the tournament's first three-on-three overtime game should be considered a highlight.

"We had tremendous opportunities. I thought our goalie made unbelievable saves early to give us a chance. It's a fine line when you get two very good teams playing in this."

There was plenty of mystery surrounding the Sea Dogs heading into this event given the long layoff and coaching change. They've now beaten the Ontario Hockey League champ and taken the Western Hockey League champ to overtime. The Sea Dogs have shown that they are worthing of a spot in this year's tournament.

"It's gut-wrenching here but I think there's so many positives for our group to play a top quality opponent like that," said MacDougall. "We were right there. Very rarely in this tournament will anyone go clean. Especially with the opponents this year."

THE CALL
Jaxsen Wiebe's second period power play goal came with Yan Kuznetsov sitting in the penalty box for delay of the game. The penalty should not have been called as the puck clearly hit the glass before leaving the ice.

MacDougall laughed when asked about the call by RDS' Stephane Leroux and gave a reasoned response.

"These are the best referees in the CHL," the coach said. "That's why they're picked here. Sometimes that happens."

Saint John's penalty kill has been storyline so far at the Memorial Cup. After allowing two power play goals on Monday (and another when they were down a man with Hamilton's goaltender pulled), the Sea Dogs gave up two more on Wednesday.

THE FIGHT
There was a rare Memorial Cup fight at 3:50 of the first when Wiebe and Riley Bezeau dropped the gloves.

"I thought we just needed a jump," said Bezeau. "What better way to do it than getting in a fight. Just wanted to get the boys going."


Hits aren't recorded/tracked at the Memorial Cup but this was clearly one of the more physical games the Sea Dogs have been involved in this year. When asked if that was the most physical game he'd played in this season, Bezeau simply said "yeah definitely, for sure."

WIEBE SHOW
Three goals on four shots - and he missed five minutes of game action while serving his fighting major. Quite a performance from Edmonton's Jaxsen Wiebe.
MORE VIDEO
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)