'PIQUES LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY

SN RECAP
FINAL: Olympiques 3, Sea Dogs 2

SAINT JOHN – It was a night to forget at Harbour Station.

The Gatineau Olympiques, facing elimination, defeated the Saint John Sea Dogs 3-2 in Game Five of the President’s Cup final. The Sea Dogs still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2, with Game Six taking place Sunday night in Gatineau.

The Sea Dogs entered Friday’s game riding the momentum of a double overtime victory on Wednesday night. But Saint John didn’t play well at all on Friday.

"There was no work ethic, not enough work ethic," Saint John head coach Gerard Gallant said of his team to the Canadian Press. "In the two games in Gatineau, we won the battles and we competed and tonight we froze. We didn't play well at all and it wasn't our team at all.

"When we won (Games 3 and 4) in Gatineau, we won puck battles and we won foot races, and tonight we didn't win many of those."

Right from the start Gatineau had the edge. They were better offensively. Their defense shut down everything but the power inside the building. Maxime Clermont was a rock in net.

Saint John on the other hand had trouble getting anything going offensively. It was an odd sight for the league’s most offensively dangerous team. Even when they had a decent opportunity they had trouble beating Clermont.

The Sea Dogs turned the puck over plenty of times as well. Goaltender Jacob DeSerres bailed his team out on several occasions but couldn’t stop everything, allowing three goals on 23 shots.

Christian Ouellet, Adam Janosik, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau all scored for Gatineau. Clermont made 25 stops in net.

Eric Gelinas and Stephen MacAulay scored the lone Saint John goals.

After a scoreless first period, Ouellet netted his 11th of the post-season at 3:19 of the second period on a power play. With DeSerres without his stick, Ouellet ripped a shot from the dot off the post and in to give Gatineau a 1-0 lead.

The ‘Piques doubled their lead at 11:53. Janosik had the puck in the corner and skated out in front, beating DeSerres down low to give the visitors a 2-0 advantage.

But back came the Sea Dogs. They finally found the score sheet at 14:37 as a Gelinas point shot went through some traffic and beat Clermont top shelf to make it a 2-1 game.

Then at 16:38, Kevin Gagne fired a shot from the line that was tipped by MacAulay and past Clermont to tie the match up at 2-2.

With the building a buzz, Saint John had some of their best pressure of the game to end the frame but just couldn’t convert.

Fast-forward to the 10-minute mark of the third period, Pageau cut off the boards and skated hard to the net, sliding the disc five-hole of the Sea Dogs ‘tender to give the Olympiques the lead.

Saint John had a few opportunities to tie it up late in the game but were unable to pull it off.

Although Gatineau led for most of the game, shots were 27-23 in favour of the Sea Dogs.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow on SN.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Gatineau for Game Six on Sunday at 8:00 pm.