Recap: Sea Dogs lose 3-0

FINAL: Moncton 3, Saint John 0

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - Goals were hard to come by in the Saint John Sea Dogs' 3-0 season opening loss to the Moncton Wildcats on Friday at TD Station.

Moncton broke a scoreless game with 7:51 remaining in the third period and added two more a few minutes later, giving former Sea Dogs head coach Gardiner MacDougall his first regular season win in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

Riley Sampson scored a pair of goals for Moncton while Alex Mercier added a solo marker. Jacob Steinman made 32 saves in the shutout win.

Charles-Edward Gravel – who was making his Sea Dogs regular season debut – made 28 stops in the loss. He came up big on more than a few occasions when the game was still scoreless.

Saint John was recording shots, but they struggled to generate a lot of high quality chances. They finished the game with just nine dangerous shots.

With Moncton missing several key regulars (Saint John was missing a few as well), the game was fairly even for much of the night. The Wildcats were definitely able to generate more quality chances than the Sea Dogs, but Saint John did a solid job at limiting those.

Saint John will look to get their offense going on Saturday night against the Halifax Mooseheads.

LINEUP

Miller - Schenk - Lominac

Rozzi - Yared - Reynolds

Dubé - Groulx - Cross

Calder - Beaulieu

Tivey - Duhamel

MacLean - Amyot

Bilodeau - Scanzano

Bonnet

Gravel

Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without defensemen Matteo Mann (Philadelphia Flyers training camp) and Giuliano Caputo (serving the first game of a two-game suspension) along with forwards Tyler Peddle (Columbus Blue Jackets training camp), Eriks Mateiko (Washington Capitals training camp) and Egan Beveridge (healthy).

DEBUTS: A number of Sea Dogs made their QMJHL debuts in this game: William Yared, Dylan Rozzi, Cruz Scanzano, Florian Schenk, Julien Bonnet and Dennis Lominac.

NOTES: The ceremonial puck drop featured Scott McCain, Trevor Georgie and representatives from TD, Moosehead and Irving... Moncton scratches due to NHL training camps: Loke Johansson, Etienne Morin, Juraj Pekarcik, Gabe Smith and Dylan MacKinnon (also serving a suspension)... Wildcats backup Keegan Warren remains out with an injury – an injury that kept him out of Boston Bruins rookie camp. Moncton called up Xavier Farrah from the MHL's Valley Wildcats to backup Jacob Steinman... former Sea Dogs head coach Gardiner MacDougall coached his first regular season game in the QMJHL... Nate Tivey wore an 'A' on his sweater... Nicolas Bilodeau was in Saint John's linuep after not playing since Aug. 24... Tivey appeared in his first game since Aug. 20... Coen Miller had five shots... faceoffs ended 51-12 in favour of Moncton. William Yared went 1/12, Florian Schenk 5/19 and Olivier Groulx 3/20... Jacob Beaulieu had five hits... attendance was 3,191... the 50/50 winner took home $12,438.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Halifax Mooseheads tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at TD Station.