PRE-GAME: Game Four at Victoriaville Tigres

GAME DAY

President’s Cup Playoffs - Round 2, Game 4

Saint John Sea Dogs vs Victoriaville Tigres

Tonight, April 13, 2011 at 8:00 pm

Colisee Desjardins

SERIES STATUS
The top-seeded Saint John Sea Dogs currently lead the 11th-seeded Victoriaville Tigres 2-1 in the best-of-seven quarter-final playoff series.

PREVIEW
VICTORIAVILLE, Que. – The Saint John Sea Dogs can take a commanding lead in their best-of-seven quarter-final playoff series tonight against the Victoriaville Tigres.

The Sea Dogs currently lead the Tigres 2-1 in the series, meaning a win tonight would put Saint John in position to clinch the series on Friday in Game Five. Tonight’s game and Friday’s will both be played at Colisee Desjardins.

The Sea Dogs played pretty well in last night’s game. Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice in the match while Eric Gelinas, Zack Phillips, Stephen MacAulay, and Danick Gauthier all added singles. Stanislav Galiev had three assists. Goaltender Jacob DeSerres was solid, making 25 saves in the win.

Saint John got into some penalty trouble early in the first period but managed to escape it thanks to some terrific penalty killing. That wasn’t the only time the penalty kill had to come up big as the Dogs continue to take a lot of penalties. Luckily, the combination of Saint John’s P.K. and Victoriaville’s lackluster power play resulted in no damage done.

The Sea Dogs also had some trouble closing out the second and third period. The Tigres scored at 16:50 of the middle frame and then had all the pressure late in the period. Then in the third, Saint John allowed two goals in the final five minutes, but, they also scored twice during that time frame.

Even with the shaky finishes, the Sea Dogs, for the most part, looked better than they did in Game Two when they fell 3-2 to the Tigres.

Victoriaville should come out flying tonight as they will not want to go down 3-1 in the series and face elimination on Friday.

REGULAR SEASON NUMBERS

	Victoriaville	Saint John
Record	35-29-1-3 (3rd East)	58-7-1-2 (1st Maritimes)
Home Record	- - -	32-0-1-1
Road Record	19-13-1-1	- - -
Streak	0-3-0-0	2-0-0-0
Last 10	5-5-0-0	8-2-0-0
Goals For	256	324
Goals Against	240	165
Goals/Game	3.76 (6th)	4.76 (1st)
Goals Against/Game	3.53 (12th)	2.43 (1st)
Shots/Game	31.16 (6th)	36.81 (1st)
Shots Against/Game	30.24 (10th)	26.96 (5th)
Overall PP	22.1% (11th)	25.1% (6th)
Home PP	- - -	24.4% (8th)
Road PP	25.4% (6th)	- - -
Overall PK	75.0% (16th)	83.7% (1st)
Home PK	- - -	86.1% (1st)
Road PK	75.9% (14th)	- - -
PIM/GAME	14.0 (11th)	13.1 (13th)

SERIES SCHEDULE
Game One – Tigres 1, Sea Dogs 4
Game Two – Tigres 3, Sea Dogs 3
Game Three – Sea Dogs 6, Tigres 3
Game Four - Wednesday, April 13, at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins
Game Five - Friday, April 15, at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins
*Game Six – Monday, April 18 at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station
*Game Seven – Tuesday, April 19 at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station

*if necessary

KIRKPATRICK UPDATE
According to News 88.9 last night, Michael Kirkpatrick would be reevaluated today. Kirkpatrick has missed the last two games of the series with an ‘upper body’ injury he suffered in Game One at Harbour Station.

From today’s Telegraph-Journal:

Meanwhile, Dogs centre Michael Kirkpatrick skated during Tuesday’s practice. The 20-year-old missed Games 2 and 3 after experiencing post-concussion symptoms following Saint John’s 4-1 Game 1 victory.

LEADERS
The top three scorers for each team so far in this series:

Saint John
Jonathan Huberdeau: 4G-2A-6Pts
Steven Anthony: 2G-2A-4Pts
Stanislav Galiev/ Eric Gelinas: 1G-3A-4Pts

Victoriaville
Phillip Danault: 2G-2A-4Pts
Samuel Groulx: 1G-3A-4Pts

Yanni Gourde: 2G-1A-3Pts

ON A ROLL

Jonathan Huberdeau has now scored in six straight games which is the longest goal scoring streak so far in the post-season. He has a total of nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in just seven post-season games.

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault is the playoff scoring leader with 19 points.

Huberdeau had several chances last night but only cashed in on two of them.

"I try to do too much fancy," Huberdeau said to Sportsnet.ca, referring to his near-misses. "I think at the end, great passing play with (Zack) Phillips and (Stanislav) Galiev and I just had to put it in."

OTHER GAMES
Montreal at Lewiston - 7:00 PM EDT
Quebec at Shawinigan - 7:00 PM EDT
Saint John at Victoriaville - 7:00 PM EDT
Drummondville at Gatineau - 7:30 PM EDT

THE RINK
Venue: Colisee Desjardins
Capacity: 2,933
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 2,551
Playoff Average Attendance: 2,578
QMJHL Arena Guide

MEDIA GUIDE
Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM
Live Web Feed: Telus
Television: None
Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation
Live Coverage: Follow Station Nation on Twitter (www.twitter.com/station_nation) for live in game coverage. All tweets will also appear in the SN Live Blog that is posted on this site.

AFTER THE BUZZER
Game five of the series goes Friday night at 8:00 pm at Colisee Desjardins.

Photo Credits: Marc Grandmaison, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Roaming The Rinks