Sea Dogs Sneak Past Foreurs

FINAL: Val-d’Or 4, Saint John 5 (SO)

SAINT JOHN – Stanislav Galiev made sure everyone at Harbour Station knew he was back.

The skilled Russian forward was a dominant force on the ice, scoring a goal and throwing six shots on net. Even with Galiev in beast mode, the Sea Dogs needed a shootout to defeat the Val-d’Or 5-4 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Friday night.

Jason Cameron, McKenzie Brown and Stephen Anderson also scored for Saint John. The Sea Dogs were only able to dress 10 forwards and five defensemen for the contest.

Mathieu Corbeil, making his regular season debut with the Sea Dogs, made 31 saves on the night.

Benjamin Casavant had a big night for Val-d’Or, recording two goals and an assist. Artem Sergeev and Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux also netted markers in the loss.

Goaltender Francois Tremblay made 24 saves.

In the first, Pierre Durepos headed to the penalty box at 2:05 to give the Foreurs an early power play opportunity. On the man advantage, a Guillaume Gelinas shot was deflected in by Casavant to give the Foreurs a 1-0 lead.

At 11:03, Anderson came hard down the wing and snapped a backhand shot on goal, sneaking past the pad of Tremblay to tie it up at 1-1.

The Sea Dogs took the lead at 15:50 as Scott Oke stood behind the goal line and threaded a pass to Galiev in front. The Washington Capitals prospect fired the puck past Tremblay to give the Dogs a 2-1 edge.

The Foreurs would even it up again though at 17:43 as Casavant netted his second of the match in the crease area. The goal went under a review but it would stand.

Shots were 9-8 Saint John in the first.

In the second, the Sea Dogs would begin to take over.

At 6:06, Tremblay made the initial stop but let a big rebound go. Brown grabbed the puck and skated around the goaltender, sliding the puck into the cage to give the Sea Dogs a 3-2 lead. Brown had hit the outside of the post just a few moments before notching his first QMJHL goal.

Just over two minutes later at 8:43 on a man advantage, Jason Cameron snipped the disc past the Val-d’Or ‘tender from the rim of the faceoff circle. That would give Saint John a 4-2 lead after two periods.

Saint John had plenty of chances later on in the frame, including several dangerous opportunities from Galiev, but were unable to convert. Shots were 16-9 Saint John in the middle stanza.

The Foreurs got within one at 3:26 of the third on a man advantage. Sergeev let a slapper go from just inside the line that beat Corbeil up high to make it a 4-3 contest.

Corbeil made some great saves throughout the third and was kept quite busy. Shots were 15-2 in favour of Val-d’Or in the final frame of regulation.

The Foreurs stunned the Harbour Station faithful with 2.3 seconds remaining on the clock. With the Foreurs net empty and the extra attacker on, Michael Beaudry fed Marcoux in front who banged the puck in to tie the match up at 4-4.

After overtime solved nothing, the game headed to a shootout. In the breakaway contest, both goaltenders were solid. Aidan Kelly would score the only goal of the event in the fourth round to give Saint John a 5-4 victory.

The Sea Dogs went 1-for-2 on the power play while Val-d’Or went 2-for-3.

Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation