Recap: Sea Dogs lose 7-4

FINAL: Bathurst 7, Saint John 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - Despite a 7-4 loss in their regular season finale on Saturday, the Saint John Sea Dogs are heading to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The Sea Dogs secured a spot with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Val-d'Or Foreurs both losing their games Saturday. The Armada earned a point in a shootout loss, securing them the 16th and final spot.

Saint John will crossover to the Western Conference and face Cam MacDonald and the Gatineau Olympiques in the first round.

The Sea Dogs will be massive underdogs in their first round series and Saturday's performance against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan was certainly not encouraging. Saint John simply didn't look great against the league's last-place team, trailing for most of it. The Dogs managed to tie things at 3-3 at 7:27 of the middle frame only for Bathurst to take the lead again at 9:57.

The Titan, who had already been eliminated from playoff contention, entered the game with just three road wins all season and having lost 18 straight away from home. 

Cole Larkin scored a pair of goals for Bathurst while singles came from Donovan Arsenault, Matthew McRae, Bobby Orr, Ty Higgins and Dominik Godin. Joshua Fleming made 37 saves in the win.

Alex Drover, Peter Reynolds, Vince Elie and Alexis Cournoyer scored for Saint John, who mixed up their line combinations to try and generate some sustained offensive zone pressure. Ventsislav Shingarov had some struggles in net, making 25 saves in the loss.

The Sea Dogs generated 41 shots in the game but only 18 were classified as dangerous.

LINEUP

Burns - Reynolds - Reinhart

Mateiko - Cournoyer - Drover

Simek - Burbidge - Benoit

Beaulieu - Elie

Tivey - DesRoches

Ianniello - Cosman

Bilodeau - Akkouche

Despont

Shingarov

Brideau

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without defenseman Jeremie Richard (injury) along with forwards Sam-Luca Thifault (injury), Harrison Ballard (healthy), Nathan Casey (injury), Nico Laforge (injury) and  Reid Calder (healthy).

PRE-GAME: Before the game, the Sea Dogs honoured their three overage players: forwards Alex Drover and Brady Burns and defenseman Charlie DesRoches. Burns and DesRoches played their entire junior careers in Sea Dogs jerseys, both making their QMJHL debuts on Sept. 21, 2018. As usual, the three were the game's three stars.

HOT STREAK: Peter Reynolds ends the regular season on a serious hot streak, scoring in six of his past seven games and in eight of his last 10. He finishes the month of March with nine goals and eight assists.

Peter Reynolds with the one-timer on the powerplay! pic.twitter.com/wr2b1YAnQZ

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) March 25, 2023

SEASON SERIES: This was, obviously, the final meeting of the regular season between the Sea Dogs and Titan. Saint John had some troubles with Bathurst throughout the year, finishing with a 4-3-2-0 record in nine meetings. The Sea Dogs are the only team Gordie Dwyer's squad had a winning record against.

NOTES: Jacob Beaulieu appeared in his first game since March 10, taking Reid Calder's spot on the fourth line... Saint John wore their black third jerseys... with a third period goal, defenseman Ty Higgins finishes the regular season with four goals and nine assists in nine games against Saint John... Peter Reynolds, Alex Drover and Nicolas Bilodeau each had five shots... Saint John went 2/5 on the power play. Both power play markers came during a Joseph Henneberry five-minute major for checking to the head... Alexis Cournoyer had a goal and two assists... attendance was 5,545, the second biggest home crowd of the season.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs will likely begin the opening round of the playoffs on Friday night in Gatineau.