PRE-GAME: Game Three at Olympiques

GAME DAY

2011 President’s Cup Final

Saint John Sea Dogs vs Gatineau Olympiques

Tonight, May 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm

Robert Guertin Centre

SERIES STATUS
The Saint John Sea Dogs and Gatineau Olympiques are tied 1-1 in their best-of-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championship series.

PREVIEW
GATINEAU, Que. – The Gatineau Olympiques return home to the Robert Guertin Centre to take on the Saint John Sea Dogs in a crucial Game Three tonight at 8:30 pm.

The Olympiques are coming off a 3-2 win in Saint John on Saturday night, a victory that tied the President’s Cup final up at 1-1. The Sea Dogs won the first game 2-1.

Hubert Labrie, Tommy Tremblay, and Nicolas Deslauriers all scored for the winners on Saturday at Harbour Station. Goaltender Maxime Clermont was unreal in net and made some timely stops for the Olympiques who were outshot 40-24.

Simon Despres scored both Saint John goals and Jacob DeSerres picked up the loss in net.

Saint John’s top offensive players have been shutdown so far in this series. Of the four goals the Sea Dogs have scored, Despres has three of them and Danick Gauthier has the other. The big guns of Jonathan Huberdeau, Stanislav Galiev, and Zack Phillips haven’t been able to successfully break through the Gatineau defense and goaltending.

They haven’t been as offensively dominant as they have been at times during the season, but the Sea Dogs are still getting opportunities to score. They just haven’t been able to beat Clermont. The goaltender leads the league in both save percentage and goals against average.

Gatineau has been opportunistic with their chances and scoring first in Saturday’s game was huge for them.

The Olympiques have the momentum going into tonight’s game and will have their home fans behind them. The winner of the contest will take a 2-1 series lead heading Game Four on Wednesday.

REGULAR SEASON NUMBERS

	Gatineau	Saint John
Record	43-17-3-5 (3rd West)	58-7-1-2 (1st Maritimes)
Home Record	- - -	32-0-1-1
Road Record	20-8-2-4	- - -
Streak	9-0-0-0	2-0-0-0
Last 10	9-1-0-0	8-2-0-0
Goals For	243	324
Goals Against	193	165
Goals/Game	3.57 (9th)	4.76 (1st)
Goals Against/Game	2.84 (5th)	2.43 (1st)
Shots/Game	28.03 (13th)	36.81 (1st)
Shots Against/Game	24.78 (1st)	26.96 (5th)
Overall PP	22.3% (10th)	25.1% (6th)
Home PP	- - -	24.4% (8th)
Road PP	23.3% (8th)	- - -
Overall PK	79.2% (10th)	83.7% (1st)
Home PK	- - -	86.1% (1st)
Road PK	79.8% (9th)	- - -
PIM/GAME	12.5 (16th)	13.1 (13th)

SERIES SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Game 1 - Thu May 5 | 7:00 PM | Gatineau 1 @ Saint John 2
Game 2 - Sat May 7 | 7:00 PM | Gatineau 3 @ Saint John 2
Game 3 - Mon May 9 | 8:30 PM | Saint John @ Gatineau
Game 4 - Wed May 11 | 8:30 PM | Saint John @ Gatineau
Game 5 - Fri May 13 | 7:30 PM | * Gatineau @ Saint John
Game 6 - Sun May 15 | 8:00 PM | * Saint John @ Gatineau
Game 7 - Mon May 16 | 7:00 PM | * Gatineau @ Saint John
*If necessary

EXPECTED GOALTENDERS

Maxime Clermont is expected to start in net for Gatineau this evening. The News Jersey Devils prospect has a playoff record of 10-7-0-0, a 2.08 goals against average, and a 0.928 save percentage. He leads the QMJHL in both save percentage and GAA.

Jacob DeSerres is expected to start in goal for Saint John. The 20-year old has a record of 9-2-0-0, a goals against average 2.20, and a save percentage of 0.911.

KIRKPATRICK AND ANTHONY
From the Telegraph-Journal:

Dogs centre Michael Kirkpatrick missed his second straight President Cup game with an upper-body injury and his status is day-to-day. Forward Steven Anthony, who left Game 1 early due to a lower-body injury, also missed Game 2.

No word yet on the status of either player heading into tonight’s game. The absence of the two really puts some holes in the Sea Dogs’ second line.

McGINN IS IN
The Gatineau newspaper Le Doit is reporting that Olympiques forward Tye McGinn is expected to return from an injury that has forced him to sit out since Game Six of the second round.

In 42 regular season games, McGinn had 31 goals and 33 assists for 64 points. In just 10 post-season games, the Philadelphia Flyers prospect has four goals and seven assists.

WELCOME HOME
The Robert Guertin Centre is one of the tougher buildings to play in in the QMJHL.

So far this post-season, the Olympiques are 7-2-0-0 on home ice and have outscored their opposition 35-14 in the nine games. In the regular season, they were 23-9-1-1 at home and outscored opponents 89-48.

Saint John won their only game at the Robert Guertin Centre this season by score of 4-3.

GOOD TIMES ON THE ROAD
Saint John has yet to suffer defeat on the road loss this post-season. They are a perfect 7-0-0-0 away from Harbour Station and have outscored opponents 34-17.

Their penalty killing is also still perfect on the road having yet to allow a goal on 36 chances.

WORKIN’ HARD
One of the problems in Game Two for Saint John was that they began to work as individuals, attempting to make one-on-one plays against the Gatineau defense.

“It’s pretty easy to play defence when guys are trying to be cute and trying to make one-on-one plays,’’ Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant said to the Ottawa Citizen. “You can’t play like that. We talk about driving to the net and putting pucks there, but our guys didn’t want to do that until the last three minutes (in Game 2).

“Saying that, we still had all kinds of scoring chances. We have the skill and the talent, but we have to work harder and compete harder.”

NO TV
There had been rumors that tonight’s game would be broadcasted on Rogers Sportsnet. But their channel and website both show that they are not broadcasting the match.

When contacted by SN, Sportsnet confirmed that they are not broadcasting the match. What a shock!

For fans in Quebec, the game can be seen on VOXTV.

PARTY TIME
If you happen to be in Gatineau this evening, there will be a pre-game tailgate party. From the Olympiques' website:

The Gatineau Olympiques will organise a tailgate party in the parking lot of the Robert-Guertin Center in front of the Carillon Street before the games of Monday, May 9th and Wednesday, May 11th against the Saint-John Sea Dogs.

For the occasion, Capitale Rock will broadcast their show “le retour” live from the tailgate party of the Olympiques. A few members of the organisation will give some interviews under the tent of the radio station.

Budlight will also be present to distribute a few promotional articles. Wednesday, the Budlight hockey squad will animate the crowd with a few games.

Fans that will be present will have the opportunity to buy some hot dogs and beverages while they mingle with other fans and get ready for the games.

THE RINK
Venue: Robert Guertin Arena
Capacity: 4,906
Reg. Season Average Attendance: 3,249
Playoff Average Attendance: 2,591
QMJHL Arena Guide

MEDIA GUIDE
Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM
Live Web Feed: Telus
Television: VOXTV
Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation, Telegraph-Journal, Le Droit, Ottawa Citizen
Live Coverage: Follow Station Nation on Twitter (www.twitter.com/station_nation) or follow the Live Blog on this site for live coverage of tonight’s game.

AFTER THE BUZZER
Game Four of the series is Wednesday night at 8:30 pm in Gatineau.

Photo Credits: Olympiques Facebook, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Google, Cyberpresse