Saint John Goals: Tomas Jurco (18) and Michael Kirkpatrick (15)
PEI Goals: Alex Noel (6) and Samuel Morneau (23)
Winning Goaltender: SNB – Mathieu Corbeil
Losing Goaltender: PEI – Evan Mosher
News 88.9 Top Dog: Jonathan Huberdeau
THE NUMBERS
Power Play: Rocket: 0/1, Sea Dogs: 0/2
Shots on Goal: Rocket: 5+4+6=17, Sea Dogs: 20+28+14+5=67
Length: 2:31
Attendance: 3,206
SAINT JOHN SCRATCHES
Defenseman Kevin Gagne missed his fourth straight game with an upper body injury. It has been said that it is nothing too serious. Prior to the game, defenseman Tyrone Sock was reassigned to Junior A.
Forwards Jason Cameron and Aidan Kelly were both healthy scratches.
Also, Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant missed the match because of an illness. He left halfway through Saturday’s game in Halifax due to sickness as well.
SEA DOGS DOWN
An incredible goaltending performance by Evan Mosher gave the Prince Edward Island Rocket a point in a 3-2 shootout loss at Harbour Station last night. The Saint John Sea Dogs peppered Mosher with 67 shots on goal through 65 minutes of regulation play.
The Sea Dogs dominated most of the game as the shots on goal tally would indicate.
"It still feels like a loss,'' Mosher said to the Telegraph-Journal. "They're the best team, so you're motivated to bring your best when you play them. You can't take a break or they'll burn you.''
Mosher didn’t make many mistakes on the night with the two Saint John goals not being the prettiest markers of the year.
The Rocket opened the scoring at 9:21 when Alex Noel scored his sixth of the season, beating Mathieu Corbeil who was making his Sea Dogs debut in goal. Despite firing 20 shots on goal in the opening 20-minutes, the Sea Dogs could not beat Mosher.
At 10:56 of the second period, Mosher made a great save before Tomas Jurco was able to beat him with a quick shot and finally get Saint John on the board. But just under two-minutes later, Rocket leading goal getter Samuel Morneau beat Corbeil with a shot the Saint John goaltender may have liked to have had back, giving the islanders a 2-1 lead.
In the third and Corbeil still in unreal mode, Michael Kirkpatrick somehow managed to get one by the netminder to tie the match and 2-2 and send it to extra time.
After overtime solved nothing, the two teams went to a breakaway challenge. Jurco and Jonathan Huberdeau were both able to score on their usual moves while Corbeil stopped two-of-three Rocket shooters to earn the extra point for the Dogs.
Mosher was able to leave the ice without collapsing from exhaustion.
THE STORY
It had to happen sometime. Sooner or later in this 68-game campaign, the Sea Dogs were going to hit a hot goaltender. They did just that on Tuesday night, and they handled it just about as well as they could have.
With 67 shots on goal on the 65-minute span of the game, Saint John was firing at least a shot per minute. But Mosher did just about everything right. A lot of saves looked fairly routine as he stayed solid positionally all night. Then there was the incredible, like his cross crease robbery of a Zach Phillips one-timer.
"The guy had to be tired,'' said Kirkpatrick of Mosher. "You run into a hot goaltender and you just have to keep firing the puck, and that's what we did. I thought we deserved to win this game. We had to battle for our goals.''
Just as tremendous as Mosher’s goaltending is the fact that the Saint John offense was able to fire that many shots off. 67 shots in a game is just a tad high even for the offensive machine that the Sea Dogs have become.
LOTS OF SHOTS
Several Sea Dogs had a ton of shots on goal:
Zack Phillips: 10Defenseman Gabriel Bourret and Pierre Durepos were the only players to not record a shot on goal.
Eric Gelinas: 7
Michael Kirkpatrick: 7
Simon Despres: 6
WELCOME BACK
There was a brief pre-game ceremony to honour Team Canada defenseman Simon Despres and Team Slovakia forward Tomas Jurco as they made their return to the Sea Dogs lineup after participating in the World Junior Hockey Championships in Buffalo.
Jurco, whose parents were reportedly in the building last night, recorded a goal in his return. Despres was a -2 and had no points.
Making their home Sea Dogs debuts were defensemen Eric Gelinas and Jason Seed and goaltender Mathieu Corbeil.
Speaking of Corbeil, he was a bit shaky at times in this game which probably had to do with some nerves and the lack of shots faced. He made 15 stops in his Sea Dogs debut.
The second goal looked like one he should have stopped. Even by looking at the replay, he appears to be angry at himself a bit.
It will be interesting to see if the Sea Dogs coaching staff keeps the rotation going this weekend with an offensively dangerous Drummondville Voltigeurs team in town.
STILL STREAKING
The Sea Dogs are on a roll. They have now won five straight – with three of those wins coming in overtime or shootout. They are 8-2-0-0 in their last 10 games.
Saint John improved to an incredible 20-0-0-1 at Harbour Station this season.
Also of note, the Dogs are just five goals away from hitting the 200 mark. They already have double the amount of goals scored by Rouyn-Noranda and Baie-Comeau.
QUICK HITS
With two points on Tuesday, Michael Kirkpatrick is just one point back of tying Ryan Sparling’s franchise record for career points as a Sea Dog… Stephen MacAulay was stopped on a penalty shot… as mentioned on News 88.9 and others, Rocket head coach Eric Lavigne apparently wasn’t too happy with the Harbour Station stats folks about the shots on goal numbers… the line combinations were all over the place… he had no points, but Jonathan Huberdeau was still one of Saint John’s most dangerous forwards Tuesday… Saint John broke their shots-in-a-period record by registering 28 in the second period… the Sea Dogs set a new franchise record for shots in a game with 67, shattering the old record of 56 set last season… to relive the game, check out the SN Live Blog Replay.
HIGHLIGHTS
NEXT GAME
The first game of a doubleheader against the Drummondville Voltigeurs begins Friday at 7:30 pm at Harbour Station.
TICKET PACKS
The Sea Dogs are running a special promotion this week only, offering half-season ticket packages, which include rights to purchase playoff packages. This is the final opportunity to avoid long gameday lineups for playoff tickets.
This special offer must be purchased at the Sea Dogs office on the second floor of Harbour Station, and ends at 5 p.m. Friday. Prices are as follows: Adult Lower Bowl $198, Adult Upper Bowl $170, Senior (60+)/Student Lower Bowl $184, Senior/Student Upper Bowl $156, Youth (14 and under) Lower Bowl $149, Youth Upper Bowl $121.
Photo Credits: PEI Rocket Facebook Page, SeaDogsTV, David Connell Web Album
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