Recap: Sea Dogs lose 5-2

FINAL: Saint John 2, Baie-Comeau 5

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - All things considered, the Saint John Sea Dogs put in a strong and respectable performance against the CHL's No. 1 ranked team on Friday at TD Station.

The Sea Dogs, playing without their leading scorer in Eriks Mateiko, fell 5-2 to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. While the Drakkar came out on top, it was a tighter game than most would have expected, and the Sea Dogs should be fairly pleased with their performance. 

QMJHL leading goal scorer Justin Poirier netted a pair of goals for Baie-Comeau while Julien Paille, Justin Gill and Isaac Dufort added singles. Dufort secured the win with an empty net goal at 18:38 of the third.

Lucas Beckman made 18 saves in the win.

Coen Miller and Tyler Peddle scored for Saint John. Patrick Leaver made 34 stops in the loss.

LINEUP

Simek - Elliott - Fournier

Peddle - Miller - Beveridge

Reynolds - Groulx - Benoit

Calder - Laforge

Tivey - Ianniello

Bilodeau - Amyot

MacLean - Duhamel

Richard

Leaver

Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Eriks Mateiko (injury), Jacob Beaulieu (serving the second game of a three-game suspension) and Benjamin Beaudry (healthy) along with defenseman Matteo Mann (injury).

NOTES: Saint John leading scorer Eriks Mateiko missed a second straight game with an injury... Saint John went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen... this was the final Quebec team the Sea Dogs will face in regular season play... Justin Gill had a goal and two assists... Justin Poirier now has 44 goals on the season... Tyler Peddle and Nicolas Bilodeau each had three assists... faceoffs were 41-25 in favour of Baie-Comeau... attendance was 2,473.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday at 7 p.m.