Recap: Sea Dogs lose 7-4

FINAL: Moncton 7, Saint John 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - A four-goal third period lifted the Moncton Wildcats past the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday at TD Station.

The Sea Dogs, who led the game 2-0 at one point, were even at 3-3 with the Wildcats through 40 minutes. But things quickly went south for Saint John with Moncton scoring two goals less than 20 seconds apart early in the third. The Dogs were able to get back within one but that was as close as they would get.

The loss was Saint John's fifth straight.

Charles Beaudoin, Preston Lounsbury, Jonas Taibel, Cole Bishop, Thomas Auger, Maxim Barbashev and Hugo Marcil scored for Moncton. Vincent Filion made 25 saves in the win.

Charlie DesRoches, Pavel Simek, Brady Burns and Vincent Despont scored for Saint John. Nikolas Hurtubise, making his season debut, made 27 stops in the loss.

LINEUP

Burns - MacDonald - Reinhart

Trenholm - Reynolds - Elie

Laforge - Burbidge - Simek

Thifault - Cournoyer - Mateiko

Tivey - DesRoches

Bilodeau - Despont

Akkouche - Cosman

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Olivier Brideau (healthy); defensemen Jake Tracey (injury) and Jeremie Richard (healthy); and forwards Marshall Lessard (injury), Jacob Beaulieu (injury) and Tomasz Szczerba (injury).

HURTUBISE BACK: 20-year-old goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise made his 2022-23 regular season debut, returning from an injury that kept him out since off-season training. He allowed seven goals on 34 shots in his return to play. A puck handling error led to Moncton's first goal.

Some good luck on the road -- and we'll take it. https://t.co/TSVO1LLDlX pic.twitter.com/wprhwaTm2h

— Moncton Wildcats (@monctonwildcats) October 22, 2022

FIRST GOAL: Rookie Pavel Simek scored his first career QMJHL goal in the first period. After being sprung on a breakaway by a nice feed from Nico Laforge, Simek beat Vincent Filion with a backhand shot along the ice, giving Saint John a 2-0 lead at the time.

Forehand
Backhand
Five hole

A beauty for his first QMJHL goal. Congratulations Pavel! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/yWndO7PAmB

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) October 22, 2022

NOTES: Captain Charlie DesRoches returned to the Sea Dogs lineup after missing the last two games with an injury... Nico Laforge's assist on Pavel Simek's first period goal was his first point of the season... the Sea Dogs were the victims of a few big open ice hits in the neutral zone... Peter Reynolds and Brady Burns each had five shots... attendance was 2,683.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Quebec Remparts tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at TD Station.