Recap: Sea Dogs win 4-3

FINAL: Baie-Comeau 3, Saint John 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs edged the Baie-Comeau Drakkar 4-3 on Wednesday night at TD Station.

Eriks Mateiko, Sam-Luca Thifault, Jared Cosman and Nate Tivey all scored for Saint John. Ventsislav Shingarov made 32 stops in the win.

Charles-Antoine Lavallee, Felix Gagnon and Justin Poirier scored for the Drakkar. Olivier Ciarlo made 35 saves in the loss.

It's a positive to see Saint John getting some offense from throughout their lineup. With Cam MacDonald and Connor Trenholm both traded away, goals may be even harder to come by for the Sea Dogs in the second half. Brady Burns did, however, serve the final game of his suspension Wednesday.

The Drakkar's road woes continued. They've won just three road games all season. Their Maritime road trip continues in Charlottetown and Cape Breton this week.

Game Day 35: vs Drakkar

SAINT JOHN - The Baie-Comeau Drakkar make their first and only visit of the season to TD Station tonight.

The Drakkar begin a three-game Maritime road trip this evening that will also see stops in Charlottetown and Cape Breton. The team is just 3-10-3-1 on the road this season, which is one of the worst road records in the league.

The Sea Dogs are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Moncton Wildcats on New Year's Eve. Saint John will be without forward Connor Trenholm tonight after he was traded to the Wildcats yesterday.

Game time tonight is 7 p.m.

TV/Radio/Stream: None/93 CFBC/CHL TV

2022-23 regular season records: The Sea Dogs are 12-20-1-1 for 26 points (sixth Maritimes/10th Eastern/18th QMJHL) while the Drakkar are 14-19-3-1 for 32 points (fourth East/seventh Eastern/14th QMJHL).

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 4-1 loss to the Moncton Wildcats on Saturday at TD Station. Nico Laforge scored Saint John's only goal. Olivier Brideau made 42 saves in the loss. The Drakkar are coming off a 6-5 overtime win in Chicoutimi on Saturday. Marshall Lessard scored a pair of goals for Baie-Comeau while singles came from Charlie Fink, Matthew MacDonald, Charles-Antoine Dumont and Justin Poirier. Olivier Ciarlo made 28 saves in the win. 

Trenholm traded to Wildcats

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Connor Trenholm has been traded to the Moncton Wildcats.

The Saint John Sea Dogs dealt Trenholm to the Wildcats in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2023 QMJHL Entry Draft and a second-round selection in 2025. The 2025 selection is Saint John's own pick.

“We were so pleased to add Connor to our group last season and today we’re just as sad to see him go” said Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie in a news release. “He is a tremendous young man who brings energy to the team on and off the ice. His character and work ethic are off the charts and we wish him the best of luck in Moncton. He is a Memorial Cup champion and forever a Sea Dog, he and his family will be missed at TD Station.”

Trenholm was acquired by the Sea Dogs from the Cape Breton Eagles last season, recording four goals and 13 points in 35 games. The 19-year-old has registered seven goals and 21 points in 34 games with the club this season.

In 188 career QMJHL games, Trenholm has 26 goals and 47 assists.

This is the second major deal the Sea Dogs have made this trade period. Last week they dealt 19-year-old forward Cam MacDonald to the Gatineau Olympiques in exchange for draft picks. The moves have helped restock some of the Saint John's draft pick cupboards for the next years, which were quite depleted after last year's trade period.

The QMJHL's trade deadline is this Friday, Jan. 6.

Despont, Swiss eliminated on wild day at world juniors

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HALIFAX - It was wild day of quarterfinal play at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship on Monday. Here's a quick recap...

• The world juniors are over for Vincent Despont and Team Switzerland. The Swiss scored just 22 seconds into their quarterfinal matchup but that would be the team's lone bright spot, falling 9-1 to Czechia in Halifax.
• After not playing at all in regulation time in Switzerland's final preliminary round game, Despont had 7:32 of ice time in this game. Much of that (6:06) came in the third period when the game was already out of reach.
• Despont, who will turn 20 in February, finishes his world junior career with one assist in 10 games split over two tournaments.
• Switzerland captain - and Halifax Mooseheads captain - Attilio Biasca was clearly devastated by the loss. He still spoke to media after the game though.
• The game of the day was certainly Canada's 4-3 overtime victory over Slovakia, which had a little bit of everything. It was far from a perfect game by the Canadians, but the Slovaks deserve a ton of credit for their performance.
• The Canada/Slovakia game was a perfect example of what makes junior hockey so great. You just never know what you're going to see when you put these elite but inexperienced players in such a high stakes environment.
• Incredible atmosphere at Scotiabank Centre. This is the fifth world junior tournament I've been to and Monday's crowd was by far the most electric. The semifinals will be something else.
• In the other quarterfinals, Finland blew a late third period lead and lost 3-2 to Sweden while the United States blewout Germany 11-1.
• Monday attendance figures: noon - 7,263; 2:30 p.m. - 8,746; 5 p.m. - 7,262; and 7:30 p.m. - 10,349.
• The semifinals, which will take place Wednesday in Halifax, will feature Czechia taking on Sweden and Canada facing the United States. The bronze and gold medal games will be held on Thursday in Halifax.
• The Fan Fest at the Halifax Convention Centre is pretty impressive given how few sponsors this event has and how little time the organizers had to pull this all together. Explore NB has really gone all out with their activations.
• The Hockey Writers discusses why the world juniors should be played in junior hockey markets more frequently.
• Lost in the Connor Bedard show on Monday was the play of Thomas Milic and this defensive play from Sherbrooke Phoenix d-man Tyson Hinds.

Can we talk about Tyson Hinds' game-changing glove save last night? 🤯#WorldJuniors | @PhoenixSherbroo pic.twitter.com/rllC5a6TYU

— QMJHL (@QMJHL) January 3, 2023

Notebook: Tivey scratch a coaching decision

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

HALIFAX - The Saint John Sea Dogs were without one of their top defenseman on Saturday.

Nate Tivey was listed as a healthy scratch by the Sea Dogs. While it is trade season in the QMJHL, the scratching was reportedly a coaching decision.

Of note from @qmjhl action today, Nate Tivey's healthy scratch was a coaching decision and not a sign the @saintjohnSeadogs rookie D is on the trading block, said head coach Travis Crickard.

— Kevin Barrett (@KevinBarrettNB) December 31, 2022

The scratch was a bold move by the Sea Dogs coaching staff given that the team was already without veteran defensemen Charlie DesRoches (injury) and Vincent Despont (world juniors). Tivey, who sits 15th in QMJHL rookie scoring with 16 points (all assists), has been on Saint John's top pairing for much of the season.

The Sea Dogs lost Saturday's game 4-1 to the Moncton Wildcats.

MACDONALD DEBUTS

Cam MacDonald had an excellent debut performance for the Gatineau Olympiques on Saturday.

After being traded by the Sea Dogs to the Olympiques on Friday, MacDonald scored two goals in his first game with Gatineau the next day. Gatineau defeated the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 5-4.

MacDonald also had four shots, four hits and went 9/17 on faceoffs in the contest. He was named the game's first star.

2022 had just about everything

Vincent Ethier/CHL

HALIFAX - If you've followed the Saint John Sea Dogs since day one, you've seen some wild calendar years. But none of them compare to the craziness that was 2022.

Remember, the Sea Dogs weren't even allowed to play hockey when the year began, playing their first game on Feb. 4 because of COVID restrictions. They opened the 2022 portion of the season with a rebuilt roster, trading just about everything for everyone. Then they suffered the most devastating playoff series loss in franchise history. Fired their head coach. Hired a new one. Hosted an incredible Memorial Cup. Won the Memorial Cup with four electric home games. Half the city got COVID from the Memorial Cup (unconfirmed). And then started the roster tear down and rebuild in the summer (and also named a new head coach).

It was a wild 12 months. It was also an unforgettable 12 months. As we start a new year, here's a look back at 2022's most read Station Nation posts.

10. Sea Dogs, Oceanic playoff series confirmed; Dufour wins goal scoring race

9. Notebook: COVID and the Cup

8. Saye suspended for high stick

7. Recap: Sea Dogs lose 6-3

6. President Cup semifinal series set

5. Breaking down Saint John's camp roster

4. Burns suspended five games

3. Notebook: Dogs' move nearly unprecedented

2. Reports: UNB's MacDougall named interim Sea Dogs head coach

1. Reports: Dwyer out as Sea Dogs head coach

To give you a sense of how big the Gordie Dwyer news was, the post about his firing is the fourth most read post in Station Nation history. This blog has been around since 2009.