GAME DAY2010 Presidents Cup Playoffs – Round Two
Game Three: Saint John Sea Dogs vs Gatineau Olympiques
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Robert Guertin Arena
SERIES STATUS
Saint John leads the best-of-seven quarter-final series 2-0.
PRE-GAME PREVIEW
The Saint John Sea Dogs look to put the Gatineau Olympiques on life support with a win tonight in game three.
Already up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, Saint John has been dominant at the Robert Guertin Arena this season. The Sea Dogs are 2-0 and have outscored the ‘Piques 15-5 this year. So far in the series, Gatineau has been outscored 14-6.
Also in Saint John’s favour is their league best regular season road record and have yet to lose a road playoff game this year.
Gatineau, who showed little life on Saturday at Harbour Station, will need a win in order to have any chance of a series comeback.
PREDICTIONS
Most predictions have Saint John winning the series in four or five games.
GET TO KNOW THE OLYMPIQUES
Visiting Team: Gatineau Olympiques
Playoff Record: 4-5
Record at Home: 1-2
Record on Road: 3-3
Power Play: 31.9%
Penalty Kill: 72.9%
Playoff Leading Scorer: Alex Noel (9GP-0G-8A-8Pts) and Denis Kindl (8GP-3G-5A-8Pts)
All-Time Playoff Record: 214-162
Reg. Season Record: 30-33-1-4 (3rd Telus East, 12th QMJHL)
Record vs Saint John: 0-3-0-0
Record at Home: 18-12-1-3 (10th)
Record on the Road: 12-21-0-1 (13th)
Power Play: 18.2%
Penalty Kill: 82.1%
Reg. Season Leading Scorer: Tye McGinn (50GP-27G-35A-62P)
NHL Draft Picks: Hubert Labrie (Dallas)
GET TO KNOW THE SEA DOGS
Home Team: Saint John Sea Dogs
Playoff Record: 6-1
Record at Home: 4-1
Record on Road: 2-0
Power Play: 34.2%
Penalty Kill: 78.6%
Playoff Leading Scorer: Michael Kirkpatrick (7GP-3G-9A-12Pts)
All-Time Playoff Record: 14-11-0
Reg. Season Record: 53-12-1-2 (1st Atlantic, 1st QMJHL)
Record vs Gatineau: 3-0-0-0
Record at Home: 26-7-0-1 (3rd)
Record on Road: 27-5-1-1 (1st)
Power Play: 24.3% (5th)
Penalty Kill: 78.8% (10th)
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
Saint John won the season series 3-0.
December 5, 2009: Gatineau Olympiques 0 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 2
January 24, 2010: Saint John Sea Dogs 8 @ Gatineau Olympiques 0
February 24, 2010: Saint John Sea Dogs 7 @ Gatineau Olympiques 5
Olympiques leading scorer vs Saint John: Christian Ouellet (3GP-1G-2A-3Pts)
Sea Dogs leading scoring against Gatineau: Tomas Jurco (3GP-3G-2A-5Pts), Zach Phillips (3GP-2G-3A-5Pts) and Michael Kirkpatrick (3GP-1G-4A-5Pts)
SERIES RESULTS
Saint John leads the series 2-0.
April 2, 2010: Game One – Gatineau Olympiques 4 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 7
April 3, 2010: Game Two – Gatineau Olympiques 2 @ Saint John Sea Dogs 7
TALE OF THE TAPE
No fights between the two during the regular season.
CRAZY FACT
When combining the regular season and playoffs, seven of Gatineau’s 11 goals against Saint John have come in the third period.
SAINT JOHN LINEUP NOTES
According to Vincent Gauthier, Kevin Gagne did not travel with the team to Gatineau because of his knee injury. Steven Anthony is questionable with a groin injury and has not played so for in the playoffs.
Saint John is believed to still have call-ups Chuckie Schembri, Tyrone Sock, and Will Johnston on their roster. They have all been scratched so far in the playoffs.
Johnston is not eligible to play due to a MJAHL suspension which ends tonight.
COACHES CORNER
Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant in the Telegraph-Journal:
"I thought our play in our defensive zone was a lot better. They didn't have as much sustained (pressure) on their attacks and we got pucks out over the blue-line instead of playing in our defensive zone a lot.''
Gatineau head coach John Chabot in the Telegraph-Journal:
"Sometimes it feels like kids against men,'' said Chabot. "Their high-end guys are older and there are more of them. The difference for us is that their older guys are wearing us down, and they're a bigger team.''
SAINT JOHN LEADERS
Rookie Jonathan Huberdeau leads the team in goals with seven, meaning he is averaging a goal per game.
Michael Kirkpatrick is tied with Nicholas Petersen for the team lead in assists with nine.
Yann Sauve leads the team in penalty minutes with 17 while Mike Thomas’ five minute kneeing major that took place on Friday is the only penalty he has taken so far in the playoffs.
THE GAME THAT WAS NEVER SEEN
Earlier this season on February 24, it was the game that nobody saw from the Robert Guertin Arena. In fact, even those at the game no doubt had their minds elsewhere.
As Team Canada battled Russia at the Olympics, Saint John beat the Olympiques 7-5 in Gatineau. Not even Tim Roszell and News 88.9 could overtake the Team Canada broadcast.
Le Droit reported the next day that only about half of the announced crowd of 2,331 showed up.
WHO TO WATCH
Gatineau: Jacob Conrad
No doubt had an emotional boost when his fan club made the trek to Harbour Station on the weekend.
Saint John: Zach Phillips
Tied for the team lead in regular season points against Gatineau. All five of those points (two goals and three assists) were scored in one game earlier this season at the Bob.
AROUND THE TOWN
WIKIPEDIA
Gatineau (census population 242,124) is a city in western Quebec, Canada, the fourth largest by population in the province (after Montréal, Québec City and Laval).It is paired with Ottawa, the capital of Canada. It is situated on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario, and is located within Canada's National Capital Region. Ottawa and Gatineau comprise a single Census Metropolitan Area. Gatineau is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality and census division of the same name, whose geographical code is 81.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Olympiques’ Adam Janosik leads the Olympiques with two goals in the series, but has a team worst rating of -5.
- Mathieu Gagnon is the only Gatineau player with a plus rating in the series. He is +1.
- Gatineau has five players from Atlantic Canada, three from Ottawa, and two from the Czech Republic.
- Saint John has scored seven or more goals in four of the five games played against Gatineau this season.
- The Sea Dogs are on a five game winning streak and have not lost since game two of the first round.
- Stanislav Galiev is on a five game point scoring streak. During that time, he has four goals and six assists. Michael Kirkpatrick and Nicholas Petersen are on four game streaks, and Jonathan Huberdeau is a three game consecutive point getting streak.
- Saint John has the best power play in the post-season so far with a rating of 34.2%.
THE RINK
Venue: Robert Guertin Arena
Capacity: 3,196
Playoff Average Attendance: 2,137
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 2,626
MEDIA RELATIONS
Newspapers: Saint John- Telegraph-Journal, L'Acadie Nouvelle; Gatineau- Le Droit, Ottawa Citizen
Radio: Saint John- News 88.9; Gatineau- Tag Radio X
Video: Telus Webcast
TWITTER
Follow Station Nation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/station_nation for in game updates from tonight’s game.
AFTER THE BUZZER
Game four is tomorrow – same time, same place.
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