SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

DELISLE PLAYING TONIGHT
Steven Delisle is expected to suit up for his first professional hockey game tonight with the Central Hockey League’s Fort Wayne Komets, reports The Journal Gazette.

The 20-year old defenseman had spent the earlier portion of the 2010-11 campaign with American Hockey League’s Springfield Falcons but had not played in a game.

If you haven’t heard, his rights were traded to Saint John last week from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in exchange for a 12th round draft pick in the 2012 QMJHL Entry Draft. At the moment, it looks unlikely that he will return to junior for an overage season. But crazier things have happened.

"If he comes great, it's just an asset we have,” said Sea Dogs associate coach and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly said to the Telegraph-Journal on Monday. “If he doesn't, then he doesn't. At the very least, we have control over where he goes if he comes back (to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). Right now, he's focused on being a professional hockey player.''

Judging by the comments sections of a few Fort Wayne newspapers, Komets fans are in panic mode after a disappointing start to the season. They sit last in the Turner Conference with a 2-6-1 record.

SEA DOGS TOP POWER RANKINGS

After earning 17 of a possible 18 points in their last nine games, the Sea Dogs are the toped ranked QMJHL team in this week’s edition of the Open Ice Hockey Power Rankings.

Only the Sea Dogs, Lewiston Maineiacs, and Shawinigan Cataractes were 2-0-0-0 last week.

The rankings are calculated using a formula based on weekly and season long play.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Four Goal Leads Aren't Always Safe

Ed. Note: Each Friday, SN takes a look at a moment(s) in Sea Dogs history. In a continuing trend of random topics that make little sense to any current event, we look back at two wins featuring four goal leads from the 2007-08 season.

Earlier this season, the Saint John Sea Dogs blew a 5-1 mid-second period lead to fall to the Drummondville Voltigeurs 7-6 in a shootout. Back during the 2007-2008 campaign, two memorable matches featured some whacky events surrounding four goal leads as well.

Back on October 27, 2007, the Sea Dogs climbed out of a 5-1 second period lead themselves. It was easily one of the most entertaining games ever played by the Sea Dogs (at the time). This game is also high on our list of the greatest Alex Grant moments in team history.

Just how remarkable was this game at the time? Just look at the Sea Dogs’ website game recap opening paragraph:

Harbour Station bore witness to an event fraught with awesomeness on Saturday night, as the Saint John Sea Dogs earned their tenth win of the season in amazingly dramatic fashion, erasing a four-goal deficit in handing the St. John's Fog Devils a 6-5 shootout loss.

VIDEO: Thomas Finally Fights

Last Saturday, the city of Saint John stood still as Sea Dogs captain Mike Thomas dropped the gloves for the first time this season, taking on Christophe Losier.



What a tilt.

The fight came of 2:14 of the second period following a Saint John goal. It was a clear win for Thomas.

Strangely enough, according to HockeyFights.com, Thomas’ last Quebec Major Junior Hockey League regular season fight came on February 27, 2010 against none other than Christophe Losier who was then with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

Thomas seems to have found the balance that is required of him in order to play in the QMJHL. After a suspension filled 2009-10 season, the New Maryland native has just 15 penalty minutes in as many games. He has been quite productive, recording four goals and four assists while playing on the third line.

The Sea Dogs play the Acadie-Bathurst Titan Saturday at the KC Irving Regional Centre.

SAINT JOHN'S DEFENSE TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

23 games into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season, the Saint John Sea Dogs are once again leading the way in offensive output.

This isn’t much of a surprise. With a solid core of young skill in Jonathan Huberdeau, Zach Phillips, Tomas Jurco, and Stanislav Galiev and veterans Michael Kirkpatrick and Steven Anthony, point production hasn’t/shouldn’t been an issue.

The Sea Dogs lead the league in goals scored with 106 for an average of 4.6 goals per game. They led the QMJHL in goals scored last season with 309 in 68 games for an average of 4.5.

But pleasantly surprising has been Saint John’s defense core. Not only does the team lead the way in goals scored in the 'Q', but they are tied with the Quebec Remparts and Shawinigan Cataractes for the fewest amount of goals allowed this season with 59.

Saint John’s defense has quietly been very good this season. You’re always hearing about Huberdeau, Jurco, and Phillips, but, other than Despres and Nathan Beaulieu, how often does Kevin Gagne, Gabriel Bourret, Guillaume Cloutier, Tyrone Sock, and Pierre Durepos come up in conversation?

The defense has a nice mix of experienced players and fresh faces. It was obvious at the start of the year that a calm and cool veteran like Despres was needed, but since his return, the ‘D’ has really stepped it up.

Just check out this fascinating statistical analysis:

Pierre Durepos: +15
Guillaume Cloutier: +14
Nathan Beaulieu: +13
Simon Despres: +11
Gabriel Bourret: +10
Kevin Gagne: +6
Tyrone Sock: +5

We can only imagine what the addition of Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Steven Delisle would do to this team.
But, of course, it hasn’t just been the defense core that has helped Saint John win games. The third line featuring forwards Mike Thomas, Danick Gauthier, and Stephen MacAulay has been nothing short of shutdown city this season.

So even with an unreal amount of talented offensive weapons, Saint John’s defensive game shouldn’t be overlooked.

SEA DOGS JUMP TO #3 IN CHL

Does beating the #3 team in the Canadian Hockey League by score of 6-0 make the victor the new #3 team?

Well, apparently, it does.

A 6-0 blowout win over the Quebec Remparts on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station helped make the Saint John Sea Dogs the new #3 team in the weekly BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings.

The Sea Dogs, who were ranked #4 last week, made the jump after a 2-0-0-0 week over two very solid opponents. The Dogs beat the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 5-3 on Saturday night before wrecking the Remparts the following day.

Along with the Sea Dogs at #3 and the Remparts at #4, the Montreal Juniors were the only other Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team represented in this week’s rankings coming in at #9. The Drummondville Voltigeurs were an honourable mention.

The weekly rankings of the CHL’s Top 10 teams are selected by a panel of National Hockey League scouts.

Here are the BMO CHL MasterCard Top Rankings for week nine:

1 Mississauga St. Michael's Majors (17-2-0-1)
2 Portland Winterhawks (19-3-0-1)
3 Saint John Sea Dogs (18-3-0-2)
4 Quebec Remparts (17-4-0-2)
5 Saginaw Spirit (15-4-1-1)
6 Saskatoon Blades (14-5-0-1)
7 Owen Sound Attack (14-4-0-1)
8 Kootenay Ice (15-4-0-2) 8 3
9 Montreal Juniors (16-4-2-1)
10 Kitchener Rangers (15-5-0-0)

Honourable Mention:
Drummondville Voltigeurs (17-7-2-1)
Red Deer Rebels (14-6-1-1)
Ottawa 67's (14-8-0-0)

Despite the Sea Dogs’ success in the first few weeks of the season, it was obvious that there were some challenges that would have to be sorted out. But over the past few weeks, the Sea Dogs have hit cruise control and haven’t hit many bumps along the way. Saint John has collected at least a point in their last nine games and are 8-1-0-1 in their last 10.

Saint John will be challenged again this weekend when they travel to Bathurst for the second time this season on Saturday. In their first appearance, the Titan downed the Dogs 5-1. Then on Sunday, the Port City juniors travel to Moncton for the first time since Game Six of the 2010 President’s Cup Final.

HOWE, LEBLANC SUSPENDED FOR SUNDAY'S GAME

The Moncton Wildcats will be without two players when they take on the Saint John Sea Dogs this Sunday.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Disciplinary Prefect, Raymond Bolduc, today suspended two Wildcats for incidents which occurred during last Sunday’s game versus the Gatineau Olympiques.

The Wildcats won the game 5-4 in overtime with a total of 80 penalty minutes handed out between the two teams.

Cédric Leblanc has been suspended for four games for his hit on the beloved Hugo Laporte. After Jean-Gabriel Pageau gave the Olympiques their first goal of the game at 16:56 of the second period, Leblanc skated by the Gatineau players celebrating and gave Laporte a punch to the head.