OFF TO THE FINALS

It took five seasons, but the Saint John Sea Dogs are finally off to the Presidents Cup Final.

Saint John will face Moncton sometime this week in what will be an epic series All this came after the Sea Dogs won their semi-final series four-games-to-two against the Victoriaville Tigres.

Game six of the series last night was not even close.

After gaining some momentum back in Victoriaville by taking two of the three games, the Tigres ran out of gas and fell 7-1 at Harbour Station.

The Dogs’ big guns were clicking all-night, with hat trick from Mike Hoffman and singles from Nicholas Petersen, Jonathan Huberdeau, Simon Despres and Tomas Jurco.

Victoriaville’s lone goal came courtesy of a Andrej Nestrasil.

Marco Cousineau was his typical self in goal and made several beautiful saves. Victoriaville’s Kevin Poulin, who was reportedly battling injuries, did not fare so well and allowed seven goals on 32 shots.

The Tigres actually had the best chance early, entering the zone on a two-on-one off the opening faceoff but could not connect.

Saint John made it 1-0 at 9:16 on the power play. Following a faceoff in the Tigres’ zone, Despres found the loose puck in the slot and wired a shot past Poulin to make it 1-0.

What’s-her-name that does the intermission stuff was up her old tricks, stating over the speaker that it would nice for Hoffman to beat Poulin. Just seconds later on a two-man power play, Hoffman ripped a shot low blocker on the Tigres’ net minder to give the Dogs a 2-0 lead.

After killing off a Tomas Jurco penalty, Nicholas Petersen deflated the Tigres with a goal at 19:41. Petersen skated down the wing and let a waek shot in on Poulin from a bad angle. The puck went five hole to give Saint John a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Shortly after Huberdeau and Michael Kirkpatrick missed on a two-on-one chance, Saint John made it 4-0. Huberdeau was alone in front and riffled the puck over Poulin at 2:38 of the second.
Victoriaville managed to gain some momentum following the goal but could not beat Cousineau.

In the third, Nestrasil gave the Tigres some life at 1:40. The import walked towards the Sea Dogs goal slowly before beating Cousineau over the glove with a wrist shot.

But the Dogs got the goal right back while shorthanded at 2:55. Hoffman broke up a pass at the blue line and broke loose. The 20-year old went to the backhand and slid the shot past Poulin to make it 5-1.

With Olivier Jannard in the box for Victo, Despres let a pass go from the point that found Jurco in front. The import made a tremendous tip to put the puck into the empty cage at 5:46.

The Sea Dogs put the icing on the cake at 9:55. Hoffman found a loose puck in the slot and wristed his third of the game past Poulin to make it a 7-1 final.

Fans stood on their foot and cheered on the home team as the final minute counted down.

Both teams had 32 shots on goal.

Saint John went 3/6 on the power play while Victoriaville went 0/5.

For more on last night's game, see Station Nation's Postcript, which will be up later.