14 STRAIGHT

Michael Kirkpatrick scored for Saint John in the win.

SN RECAP
FINAL: Mooseheads 1, Sea Dogs 4

SAINT JOHN – For the second straight year, the Saint John Sea Dogs have hit the triple digits.

With a 4-1 victory over the Halifax Mooseheads on Tuesday night at Harbour Station, the Sea Dogs picked up two points to increase their point total to a whopping 101 on the year. The win also saw Saint John’s lead in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League standings increase to 11 points over the Montreal Juniors.

According to the Sea Dogs’ Twitter, the hockey club is only the seventh team in QMJHL history to have back-to-back 100 point seasons. The win was also the Dogs’ 14th straight. Finally, they have now gone an amazing 21 consecutive games without losing in regulation.

As for the game itself, the Sea Dogs played well and were able to stop any possibility of an upset happening. The team got into some penalty trouble in the first period but their defense and a strong goaltending performance from Mathieu Corbeil was enough to shutdown the Mooseheads.

Michael Kirkpatrick, Tomas Jurco, Nathan Beaulieu, and Stanislav Galiev all scored for winners. Corbeil made 22 stops in the win, putting his season record up to 15-15-1-1.

As for the Mooseheads, they played quite well and they certainly did not play as bad as they had in the past against Saint John this season. Matthew Boudreau scored the lone goal for the visitors while Anthony Terenzio made 32 saves in the loss.

FIRST PERIOD
Michael Kirkpatrick was called for holding at 1:20 of the first period. Halifax’s best chance came following a scramble. The puck came loose and was centered for Martin Frk who was stopped nicely by a sliding Mathieu Corbeil in the Sea Dogs crease. It was a pretty good power play for the Herd although they couldn’t score.

Saint John went to their first power play of the night at 4:45. Kirkpatrick sent a nice cross crease pass to Jonathan Huberdeau but he was unable to get the sailing disc on goal. It was an okay man advantage for the Dogs.

The penalties kept coming as the Moose went back to the man advantage at 6:59. But unlike the first, Halifax couldn’t get much of anything working.

When that penalty ended, the Herd went to yet another power play moments later as Kirkpatrick went off again at 9:47, this time for hooking. Halifax struggled to get things working again and failed to open the scoring. Out of the box, Kirkpatrick and Stephen MacAulay tried to break free but it resulted in a huge pile up in the Mooseheads crease.

The Dogs opened the scoring at 14:51. Kevin Gagne fired a shot following a faceoff win and was stopped by Halifax netminder Anthony Terenzio. But the rebound came right to Kirkpatrick who potted his 27th of the campaign to make it 1-0 Saint John.

The Herd had a decent chance later on in the frame as Carl Gelinas fired a shot on Corbeil that produced a rebound. The puck came right to a streaking Darcy Ashley who had a yawning cage but couldn’t even get a shot off.

Saint John outshot Halifax in the opening frame 12-10

SECOND PERIOD
Zack Phillips fed Stanislav Galiev for the first quality chance of the second period but he hit the side of the cage with a backhander.

At 1:26 of the frame, Ashley tripped Tomas Jurco to give the Dogs a power play. On the ensuing man advantage, Jurco would not be tripped as he banged the puck past Terenzio down low to give Saint John a 2-0 lead.

Just a few seconds following the maker, a great pass from along the boards found Alexandre Beauregard at the other side of the ice by the net. But Beauregard sent the disc off the side of the cage as Terenzio dove to get across. Soon after, Phillips cut through some traffic to get in close but failed to get a shot on goal.

Some rough stuff at 8:23 created some four-on-four action with Jason Cameron and Martin Frk heading to the sin bin. During the span, Eric Gelinas sent a beautiful pass down low to Jason Seed who walked in from the blue line. Seed tipped the puck on net but was robbed by the Moose netminder.

After a few minutes of solid Sea Dogs pressure, they went back to the man advantage at 12:03. Huberdeau was doing all kinds of spins and stuff but couldn’t get a marker out of it on the power play. Then, at 13:24, Gelinas sent a pass to Beaulieu who blasted a point shot that got through. Phillips was originally given the goal but it was later awarded to Beaulieu. Either way, it was 3-0 Saint John.

Danick Gauthier headed to the box at 15:06. On the man advantage, Gerrad Grant walked in front and tried to jam the puck in past the pads of Corbeil but couldn’t. Later on, the puck hit the post or something and stayed out.

Late in the period, Steven Anthony centered the puck for Kirkpatrick but he couldn’t get enough of it to get it on goal.

Shots on goal in the second stanza were 14-7 Saint John.

THIRD PERIOD
Halifax got on the board at 2:39 of the third period. Konrad Abeltshauser sent a shot towards the goal and Matthew Boudreau picked up the garbage to cut the Sea Dogs’ lead to two.

Saint John went back to work after that with Huberdeau buzzing around the net but was unable to get the marker back. Halifax then broke loose on a partial two-on-one with the original shot being stopped. Corbeil was way out of his net following the stop but was still in good positioned to stop Frk’s chance.

Kirkpatrick had another good chance later on but was stopped in close.

Saint John got their goal back at 11:12 as Galiev hammered the puck on goal that snuck past Terenzio along the side of the post to make it a 4-1 affair.

Moments later, Frk was sprung on a breakaway. The Czech forward made a move to his backhand but Corbeil stuck with him, making the arm/pad stop and keeping the Herd away from any comeback opportunities.

Saint John had some good pressure in the final five minutes of the game but couldn’t find the back of the cage.

Shots in the third period were 10-6 Saint John.

The Sea Dogs were great on the power play, going 2-for-3, while Halifax went a woeful 0-for-5.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Gatineau on Friday for a 8:30 pm contest. It is the first of a three-in-three for the Sea Dogs.