POSTSCRIPT: Rocket 4, Sea Dogs 6

SEA DOGS –ROCKET GAME AT A GLANCE

Final Score: PEI 4, Saint John 6

Saint John Goals: Kevin Gagne, Ryan Tesink (2), Tomas Jurco (2), and Jonathan Huberdeau

PEI Goals: Travis McIsaac, Jordan Escott, Ben Duffy, and Josh Currie
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Karel St. Laurent
Losing Goaltender: PEI – Evan Mosher
News 88.9 Top Dog: Jonathan Huberdeau

THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Rocket: 0/4, Sea Dogs: 0/5
Shots on Goal: Rocket: 11+4+12=27, Sea Dogs: 16+7+11=34
Length: 2:15
Attendance: 4,522

SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Missing from the Sea Dogs lineup because of National Hockey League Rookie/Training Camps were: Simon Despres (Pittsburgh), Mike Thomas (Edmonton), Steven Anthony (Vancouver), Stephen MacAulay (St. Louis), and Stanislav Galiev (Washington).

Also not in the lineup was the newly acquired Dylan McGuigan.

RECAP
It was a back-and-forth battle Friday night at Harbour Station; a game that eventually saw the Saint John Sea Dogs top the PEI Rocket 6-4 in the season opener for both squads.

Kevin Gagne opened up the scoring early in the first period. But just under 10 minutes later at 14:25, Travis McIsaac evened the game at 1-1.

The Rocket would take the lead at 16:47 after a weak Jordan Escott shot trickled through the pads of Karel St. Laurent. But under two minutes later, Ryan Tesink tied the affair with his first career QMJHL goal. Just over a minute later, Duffy would pull PEI ahead again with a long range slap shot going off the crossbar and in. But as the first frame winded down, Tomas Jurco sent the two teams to the dressing room tied at 3-3 after recording his first goal of the 2010-11 campaign.

In the second, Jonathan Huberdeau gave the sea Dogs their much coveted lead back with some hard work in the crease area.

In the final frame, the Rocket would tie the game up for the last time at 12:08 after Josh Currie found the back-of-the-net. Jurco would give Saint John their lead back at 13:11, fighting off two defensemen on a partial breakaway to score his second of the game. Tesink would add the the insurance marker on an empty net goal, giving the Dogs a 6-4 win.

RAISE THEM UP
Two banners were raised prior to the game to honor the Sea Dogs' 2009-10 Atlantic Division and Regular Season championships. Sea Dogs CEO Scott McCain and some members of the Sea Dogs’ major sponsors stood at center ice as the banners rose to the Harbour Station rafters.

It was the first banner raising in team history.

The two large banners were hung in the east end of the facility between the Canadian and American national flags – albeit a few rows of rafters ahead of them. The banners were risen using rope and a metal poll, indicating that the two signs have not been permanently put up yet.

BIG GAME FOR THE ROOKIES
Several rookies stepped up their games with many regulars away at NHL camps this week.

Ryan Tesink, a Saint John native and the Sea Dogs’ first round pick in this past spring’s QMJHL Entry Draft, recorded his first career goal and assist in his first ever game. After getting his first goal in the first period, Tesink jumped and threw himself into the corner glass.

With the QMJHL website down we cannot check this, but Andrew McGilligan brought up a good point on the News 88.9 post-game show. He asked if Tesink was the first Saint John native to score a goal at Harbour Station wearing a Sea Dogs jersey. The only name that Tim Roszell could think of who may have scored previously was Mike Neil, who played with the Dogs during the 2005-06 campaign.

Devon Oliver-Dares, who recorded no points and was a -1, also had a strong game and played the role of a pest at times. He was cut from the team last week but was recalled to help fill the roster vacancies.

PEPSI MOVES IN
The much awaited move (for some anyways) to Pepsi was in full effect last night at Harbour Station.

All the vending machines at the concession stands featured Pepsi products, there was a new board ad, and the giant Coca-Cola ad that once sat below the luxury suites was replaced.

NEW GOAL HORN
The Sea Dogs are going Edmonton Oilers style with their goal horn this year.


Ignore the song in the background.

FOOL ME ONCE…
We assume Matthew Buckley is once again in control of the video production at Harbour Station this season. We will never forgive him for the trick he played last night.

SEA DOGS WIN A WILD OPENER

SN RECAP
FINAL: Rocket 4, Sea Dogs 6

SAINT JOHN – With so many regular players away at National Hockey League Training Camps, several players needed to step up for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

They did.

The fresh face filled Sea Dogs lineup was highlighted by Saint John native Ryan Tesink recording two goals and an assist in the opening game of his QMJHL career. Tesink was selected by the Sea Dogs in the first round of the 2010 QMJHL Entry Draft.

His two goals would help lead the Dogs to a 6-4 win in their season opener against the PEI Rocket at Harbour Station on Friday night.

But along with the first year players stepping up, several returning players also showed no signs of rust to help Saint John win their third straight season opener.

Michael Kirkpatrick, wearing the “C” With Mike Thomas away at Edmonton Oilers rookie camp, recorded three assists. Tomas Jurco added a pair of goals while Jonathan Huberdeau and Kevin Gagne each registered single markers.

Karel St. Laurent stopped 23 pucks for the win. Rocket net minder Evan Mosher made 28 saves.

PEI goals came courtesy of Travis McIsaac, Jordan Escott, Ben Duffy, and Josh Currie.

After a slow first few minutes, Gagne opened the scoring at 5:54. Kirkpatrick fed the puck to an open Gagne who quickly wired a shot off the glove of Mosher and in to make it 1-0 Saint John.

Danick Gauthier had two solid scoring chances following the initial marker but was robbed by the Rocket ‘tender both times.

PEI tied the affair at 14:25 after St. Laurent let out a large rebound on a point shot. McIsaac found the puck and curved it around a blind St. Laurent to knot the game at one apiece.

Escott gave the Rocket the lead at 16:47 when he banged in a shot that just trickled through St. Laurent and over the line to make it 2-1.

Huberdeau had the puck along the side boards soon after, sending a crisp pass to a streaking Kirkpatrick in close. Mosher would stop the initial shot, but Tesink was in perfect position to bury the rebound tie the game at 2-2 at 18:31.

The Rocket took the lead again at 19:35 when Duffy ripped a shot inside the zone that rose over St. Laurent’s shoulder and off the crossbar. The puck would find blue paint to make it 3-2 for the visitors.

But the back-and-forth first period didn’t end there as Jurco wristed a shot that beat Mosher down low to tie the game going into intermission.

Shots in the opening frame were 16-11 Sea Dogs.

The only scoring in the second came courtesy of Huberdeau, who banged home the puck while falling to the ice in the crease at 0:45. That gave Saint John a 4-3 lead.

Shots in the middle stanza were 7-4 Sea Dogs.

In the third, PEI tied the match once again at 12:08. A pass from along the goal line went through the Sea Dogs crease and found the stick of Currie. The right winger made no mistake by dishing the disc into the empty cage to make it a 4-4 hockey game.

But on a partial breakaway at 13:11, Jurco beat Mosher with a wrist shot to give Saint John their lead back.

Tesink would add the insurance marker at 19:09 on a breakaway with an empty net in front of him to make it a 6-4 final.

Shots in the final period were 12-11 PEI.

Saint John outshot the Rocket in the game 34-27.

The Sea Dogs were 0/5 on the power play and PEI went 0/4.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles tonight at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station.

LIVE BLOG: Rocket vs Sea Dogs

Comments: OFF

GAME DAY: PEI Rocket vs Saint John Sea Dogs

GAME DAY

WHO: PEI Rocket vs Saint John Sea Dogs
WHEN: Tonight, 7:30pm
WHERE: Harbour Station

(Editor’s Note: With the stats portion of the QMJHL website having been destroyed, the SN traditional pre-game is on hiatus until further notice.)

THE MATCHUP
Four months ago today at the Moncton Coliseum, the Wildcats snatched the President's Cup away from from the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Tonight, the long road to redemption begins.

The PEI Rocket will take on the Sea Dogs at Harbour Station at 7:30 pm for the season opener for both teams. The 2010-11 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season began last night with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan defeating the Wildcats 2-1 in a shootout.

The Rocket finished the pre-season with a 4-1-0-1 record while Saint John finished 2-4. The two teams met once in exhibition play, with the Rocket coming out on top 5-1 at the Charlottetown Civic Centre.

Their last meeting that had meaning was in Game Five of the opening round of the 2010 QMJHL playoffs. Tomas Jurco scored in overtime to push Saint John into the next round.

“A healthy rivalry has developed between the Sea Dogs and Rocket in recent years, a trend which will undoubtedly carry over into Friday’s intradivisional showdown,” states the Sea Dogs website. “Saint John has won twenty of the 34 games played between these two teams over the course of the last five seasons, outscoring P.E.I. 139-129 in the process. The Sea Dogs have also eliminated the Rocket from playoff contention twice in the last three post-seasons, needing only nine games to take the two best-of-seven opening round series (in 2008 & 2010 respectively).”

AWAY AT CAMP
Saint John will be without defenseman Simon Despres and forwards Steven Anthony, Mike Thomas, Stanislav Galiev, and Stephen MacAulay who are way at National Hockey League Rookie and Training Camps and will not play tonight.

According to the Charlottetown Guardian, Brad Yetman (concussion) is out as is Nestrasil (Detroit Red Wings), defencemen Matthew Hobbs (Ottawa Senators) and Adam Polasek (Vancouver Canucks) and winger Philippe Paradis (Chicago Blackhawks), who are attending NHL camps.

IN NET
Karel St. Laurent is likely to get the start in goal for the Sea Dogs tonight.

Evan Mosher will start for the Rocket.

PRE-GAME STUFF
There will be a special pre-game banner raising tonight to celebrate the Sea Dogs’ 2010 Atlantic Division and QMJHL Regular Season Championship.

The first 5,000 fans inside Harbour Station will receive a free Sea Dogs banner magnet.

LOOKING SHARP
The retrofitted Harbour Station score clock, featuring a high definition video board, will make its debut tonight.

Sea Dogs President Wayne Long said on News 88.9 this morning that a kiss and dance cam will be featured on the state-of-the-art center ice clock.

Long added, and we couldn’t agree more, that the new clock will completely change the Sea Dogs entertainment experience.

THE EXPECTATIONS
Last year, there really were no expectations. Almost half the team and bench staff were new to Saint John – but not this year.

The Sea Dogs will face the pressure of trying to meet expectations that have been placed on them.

The Hockey News expects the Dogs to finish first overall in the QMJHL and third in the Canadian Hockey League. Yesterday, the Sea Dogs were selected by a group of NHL scouts as the second best team in the CHL prior to seasons start.

"I expect to see that again this season," said Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said about the team’s high powered offence last year to the Times & Transcript. "I think we have a lot of guys who can score goals. I think we're bigger and more gritty upfront than last season."

"For us to win a championship, we'll have to be a little better than we were last season and that's not going to be easy," said Gallant. "There's other very good teams. I think we're right in the mix with the best teams in the league and if we play to our potential we should be fine."

WHO ARE THESE ROCKET CHARACTERS?
You could call it a make or break year for the PEI Rocket. After a season that saw the team trade away their star players prior to the trade deadline, the Rocket could be back with a bang.

Additions to the team include Victor Provencher and Louick Marcotte who were first-round picks in the 2010 QMJHL draft. Marc-Andre Levesque, Jordan Moore, Jean-Laurence Beauchemin, Travis McIsaac, Philippe Paradis and Andrej Nestrasil were acquired in trades.

“We're going to be pretty big on defence and our team has more speed than last season," said P.E.I. general manager Serge Savard Jr to the Times & Transcript. "We also think we have one of the best goalies in the league in Evan Mosher."

"I think we're a balanced team," said Savard. "We're not excellent. I think we're okay everywhere. I don't think we have any weakness, but for sure we need to improve (to be a top contender). We should be in the top one-third of the league."

NOTES

• This is the first time in three years that the Sea Dogs have started the season at home. The past two years the team has began the year in Bathurst.
• All-time, Saint John is 3-2 in season openers. They are 1-1 when opening the year on home ice.

ARENA INFO
Venue: Harbour Station
Seating Capacity: 6,297
Average Attendance: N/A
Year Built: 1993
QMJHL Arena Guide

MEDIA GUIDE
Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM
Live Web Feed: Telus
Television: None
Live Blog: Station Nation
Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation, Telegraph-Journal, The Guardian

TWITTER
Follow Station Nation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/station_nation for in-game updates, scores, stats, and live coverage during tonight’s game. The SN Twitter stream will also will be featured on tonights live blog.

AFTER THE BUZZER
The Sea Dogs host the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles Saturday night at 7:00pm at Harbour Station.

SEA DOGS RANKED SECOND

The Saint John Sea Dogs are starting where they left off.

Today, the Canadian Hockey League released the pre-season edition of the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings. The weekly rankings of the CHL’s top 10 teams are selected by a panel of National Hockey League scouts.

Saint John was ranked second in the nation in this week's Top 10. Only the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga St. Michael's Majors – who are the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup hosts - are placed higher than the Sea Dogs.

Other Quebec Major Junior Hockey League teams include the Montreal Junior in the seventh spot and the Rimouski Oceanic ranked ninth.

Here are the full rankings:

1. Mississauga St. Michael's Majors
2. Saint John Sea Dogs
3. Portland Winterhawks
4. Kitchener Rangers
5. London Knights
6. Tri-City Americans
7. Montreal Juniors
8. Saskatoon Blades
9. Rimouski Oceanic
10. Red Deer Rebels

Honourable Mention:
Ottawa 67's
Quebec Remparts
Chilliwack Bruins

Saint John was listed in the Top 10 for most of the 2009-10 season, including a lengthy stint ranked first in the nation during the team’s 22-game winning streak. The Dogs finished last year ranked second.

The Hockey News picked Saint John to finish third in the country in their Top 10 rankings.

With the OHL and Western Hockey League season not starting for two weeks, week two of the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings will not be issued until Wednesday September 29, 2010.

CHL NETWORK LAUNCHES

As many of you probably know by now, the Canadian Hockey League Online Network finally launched last night. The launch meant that all 60 CHL teams, the CHL site, the Ontario Hockey League site, the Western Hockey League site, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League site all got new websites and became part of the same network.

“The Canadian Hockey League is excited to deliver the largest Canadian sports online network ever, allowing CHL fans everywhere the ability to easily access information on the best development league in the world,” said CHL President David Branch in a release. “Our partners at MRX have done a terrific job of working with our leagues and teams to develop new sites with fresh platforms to provide new and exciting content that will deliver increased value to our fans.”

The release also states that “the launch provides a more streamlined set of websites with improved navigation, emphasis on social networking, and consistent advertising opportunities for national and league sponsor recognition. All sites will feature a redesigned schedule and live scoring console making it easy for fans to follow their favourite teams and purchase tickets to any game. Sites will also feature larger news readers, photo galleries, and video players with the ability for leagues and teams to easily share content across all 64 websites. All three regional leagues will now be using the same online scorekeeping and stats system through Leaguestat.com which will provide consistency across the entire CHL.”

As expected when anything this large launches, there are going to a lot of technical difficulties.

The Halifax Mooseheads even released an apology about the errors on their web page.

“Like all 60 CHL teams, today we have launched a new website to better serve our fans,” the team wrote on their website. “We understand that several areas are not working properly at this time or providing the correct information. We currently have staff working hard to correct these problems. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

We have glanced over several of the QMJHL team pages, and, although many may think that only the colour scheme changes between sites, each page does seem to be a bit different in their design scheme.

The new Saint John Sea Dogs website already has their photo gallery launched, as well as most of the links that appeared on the old page.

Please note that the Sea Dogs schedule is incorrect and this weekend’s games start at 7:30 and 7:00, respectfully.

“Yeah, quite a few kinks to work out unfortunately, proper time zone implementation being one of them,” responded the Sea Dogs on Twitter to a fan asked question.

Some noticeable errors on all team sites are the rosters. Here is what Saint John’s looks like:

Former Sea Dogs assistant coach Jim Midgley is also listed as a player with the Mooseheads this season.

Here are before-and-after shots of the Sea Dogs website:

BEFORE

AFTER