GAME DAY2010 Presidents Cup Playoffs – Round Three
Game Six: Victoriaville Tigres vs Saint John Sea Dogs
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Harbour Station
SERIES STATUS
Saint John leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.
PRE-GAME PREVIEW
One thing is for certain, the Saint John Sea Dogs do not want to being playing hockey on Wednesday at Harbour Station. Instead, they would much prefer to be playing against their arch rival on Friday.
The Sea Dogs can end the semi-finals tonight. A win and their hard fought series against the Victoriaville Tigres is over. A loss forces a game seven.
Saint John played very well on Saturday despite picking up a 4-2 loss at Colisee Desjardins. Kevin Poulin stood on his head for the Tigres, stopping 43 of 45 shots. But the hot goaltender was wounded in battle, and could be M.I.A. tonight.
Victoriaville hasn’t had the best of luck at Harbour Station in this series so far. The Tigres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in game one and a 1-0 lead in game two, only to have both turn into eventual losses.
Saint John will certainly try to come out of the gate hard, something that worked on Friday in game four and almost worked again on Saturday.
It must not be forgotten that home ice has been a big advantage on this series, with the home side winning four of five times.
GET TO KNOW THE TIGRES
Visiting Team: Victoriaville Tigres
Playoff Record: 10-5
Record at Home: 6-2
Record on Road: 4-3
Power Play: 28.9%
Penalty Kill: 83.1%
Playoff Leading Scorer: Philip-Michael Devos (15GP-9G-15A-24Pts)
All-Time Playoff Record: 110-112
Reg. Season Record: 46-19-1-2
Record vs Saint John: 1-1-0-0
Record at Home: 23-8-1-2 (4th)
Record on the Road: 23-11-0-0 (3rd)
Power Play: 25.6%
Penalty Kill: 85.8%
Reg. Season Leading Scorer: Philip-Michael Devos (68GP-35G-58A-93Pts)
NHL Draft Picks: Kevin Poulin (New York Islanders), Andrej Nestrasil (Detroit), Tomas Kubalik (Columbus), Joel Champagne (Toronto), Chris Doyle (New York Rangers), Joel Chouinard (Colorado), Samuel Groulx (San Jose).
GET TO KNOW THE SEA DOGS
Home Team: Saint John Sea Dogs
Playoff Record: 11-3
Record at Home: 6-1
Record on Road: 5-2
Power Play: 29.9%
Penalty Kill: 85.9%
Playoff Leading Scorer: Michael Kirkpatrick (14GP-10G-13A-23Pts)
All-Time Playoff Record: 19-13
Reg. Season Record: 53-12-1-2 (1st Atlantic, 1st QMJHL)
Record vs Victoriaville: 1-1-0-0
Record at Home: 26-7-0-1 (3rd)
Record on Road: 27-5-1-1 (1st)
Power Play: 24.3%
Penalty Kill: 78.8%
Reg. Season Leading Scorer: Mike Hoffman (56GP-46G-39A-85P)
NHL Draft Picks: Yann Sauve (Vancouver), Marco Cousineau (Anaheim), Simon Despres (Pittsburgh), Steven Anthony (Vancouver), Mike Hoffman (Ottawa), and Nicholas Petersen (Pittsburgh).
HEAD-TO-HEAD THIS SEASON
Season series tied 1-1.
September 25, 2009: Victoriaville 5 @ Saint John 2
October 4, 2009: Saint John 5 @ Victoriaville 3
Sea Dogs leading scorer vs Victoriaville: Nicholas Petersen (1GP-1G-2A-3Pts) and Steven Anthony (2GP-1G-2A-3Pts)
Tigres leading scorer vs Saint John: Andrej Nestrasil (2GP-3G-3A-6Pts)
SERIES RESULTS/SCHEDULE
Saint John leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.
GAME 1: Friday, April 16 – Victoriaville Tigres 2 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 4
GAME 2: Saturday, April 17 – Victoriaville Tigres 1 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 5
GAME 3: Tuesday, April 20 – Saint John Sea Dogs 3 @ Victoriaville Tigres 6
GAME 4: Friday, April 23 – Saint John Sea Dogs 6 @ Victoriaville Tigres 1
GAME 5: Saturday, April 24 – Saint John Sea Dogs 2 @ Victoriaville Tigres 4
GAME 6: Monday, April 26 - 7pm @ Harbour Station
*GAME 7: Wednesday, April 28 - 7pm @ Harbour Station
*if necessary
TALE OF THE TAPE
September 25, 2009: Alexandre Leduc vs Maxime Robichaud
September 25, 2009: Danick Gauthier vs Patrick Dore
CRAZY FACT
How rare Monday games? This is only the third Monday game in Sea Dogs regular season/playoff franchise history. Both previous games were played on the road.
SAINT JOHN LINEUP NOTES
Nicholas Pard missed Saturday’s game with a bruised foot. He suffered the injury Friday after taking a Pierre Durepos shot in the skate.
Kevin Gagne did not travel with the team to Victoriaville because of a knee injury. The 17-year old has not played since game five of the opening round.
Steven Anthony is questionable with a groin injury. Will Johnston has been taking his place in the lineup.
VICTORIAVILLE LINEUP NOTES
Keven Dupont, the victim of the Mike Thomas hit, will likely not play because of a concussion and broken nose.
Victoriaville starting goaltender Kevin Poulin was hurt in the late stages of the third period on Saturday after Simon Despres and Emmanuel Boudreau rolled over him. The net minder stayed in the game but left following the Tigres’ empty net insurance goal.
Poulin left with some kind of leg injury and limped out for his first star honor. RDS reports that he may have suffered a knee injury.
HURTIN’ GOALIE
The loss of Kevin Poulin in the Tigres’ crease would be huge for the Tigres. The goaltender finished the regular season with a record of 35-16, a goals against average of 2.16, and save percentage of 0.916. In the playoffs, Poulin is 15-5 and has played every game of this series.
Victoriaville’s backup, Antonio Mastropietro, was 11-6 this season and has under nine minutes of playoff experience in his two year career.
HISTORY IS WITH US
Saint John has played in just one other game six tilt in their franchise history. That was in 2008 in Bathurst, where Payton Liske scored 2:16 into overtime to win a wild one 5-4.
Tonight will be the first game six played at Harbour Station.
STILL LEADING THE WAY
Victoriaville has the best power play and penalty kill among the three teams still alive in the playoffs. In the regular season, the Tigres finished with the league’s best penalty kill and second best power play.
FLEABURN IS READY
From Fleaburn’s official Facebook page:
Its nice to be back in SJ...would have liked to finish the series in Victoriaville..but finishing at home is gonna be SWEEEEEEET.....
WHO TO WATCH
Victoriaville- Philip-Micahel Devos
Devos scored a goal and an assist on Saturday to lead the Tigres to victory. Victoriaville’s regular season leading scorer has retaken the playoff point lead for the league with 24 points.
Saint John- Mike Thomas
Thomas has been Thomas in this series. The captain always seem to step up his game in pressure filled moments – like tonight.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Saint John is 2-0 in this series at Harbour Station and has a 6-1 home record so far on the playoffs.
- Michael Kirkpatrick is second in league scoring with 23 points.
- Mike Hoffman is on a six game point scoring streak. In that time, the sniper has amassed two goals and five assists.
- Stanislav Galiev leads the Sea Dogs in scoring against Victoriaville in the series. He has three goals and four assists in the five games.
- Pierre Durepos and Christian Morin are a team best plus-three in the series.
- Yann Sauve is a team worst minus-three.
- Philip-Michael Devos leads the Tigres in scoring in the series. He has three goals and five assists but is a minus-one.
THE RINK
Venue: Harbour Station
Capacity: 6,297
Playoff Average Attendance: 4,470
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 4,140
MEDIA RELATIONS
Newspapers: Saint John- Telegraph- Journal, L’Acadie Nouvelle; Victoriaville- La Nouvelle/L’Union
Radio: Saint John- News 88.9; Victoriaville- 95.7 KYQ
Video: Telus Webcast
Post-Game Highlights: SeaDogsTV
TWITTER
Follow Station Nation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/station_nation for in game updates from tonight’s game.
AFTER THE BUZZER
A Tigres win will force game seven on Wednesday. A Sea Dogs win puts Saint John into the QMJHL final on Friday.
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