Five Straight For Sea Dogs

FINAL: Saint John 4, Drummondville 2

DRUMMONDVILLE – The Saint John Sea Dogs are on a roll.

Devon Oliver-Dares, Scott Oke, Zack Phillips and Tomas Jurco all scored for Saint John in their 4-2 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League victory on Friday night over the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The win gave the Sea Dogs their fifth straight win and improved their record to 5-3-0-0.

The win also gave Saint John their second win on a three-game road trip through Quebec. They defeated the Blainville-Boisbraind Armada 3-1 on Wednesday and finish their trek tomorrow in Victoriaville. Game time against the nation’s fourth ranked team is 5pm AST.

On Friday, the Sea Dogs netted two even strength, one power play and one shorthanded goal to defeat the Voltigeurs. Saint John led 2-0 after one and 4-1 after two.

Netminder Mathieu Corbeil was excellent in goal again, making 22 saves to earn the win. It was his fourth straight start in net since returning from Columbus Blue Jackets training camp.

Although they were outshot 24-20, the Sea Dogs played a much better game than they did on Wednesday in Boisbriand. The only obvious issues were the penalties which allowed the Volts to stick around late in the contest.

Matthew Andreacchi and Oliver Archambault each scored for Drummondville. Domenic Graham was pulled after allowing four goals on 12 shots. His replacement, former Sea Dogs prospect Simon Giroux, stopped all eight shots he faced.

FIRST PERIOD

If took a few minutes for either team to get a shot on goal. Stanislav Galiev kicked things off with a high shot that hit the shoulder of Domenic Graham and sailed over the net.

The Sea Dogs made it a 1-0 contest at 4:18 as Aidan Kelly and Devon Oliver-Dares broke in on a two-on-one. Kelly carried the puck and passed over to Oliver-Dares who slid the disc past Graham to give the visitors an early lead.

Ian Saab had a light wrist shot go through some traffic a few moments later but was denied.

Saint John went to their first man advantage at 9:26 but the Volts put together a solid kill and kept Saint John’s chances to a minimum.

Drummondville went to the power play 13:57 as Ryan Tesink headed off. While shorthanded, Scott Oke broke loose on a breakaway and beat Graham with a deke to give the Dogs a 2-0 edge.

Back at even strength, Jason Seed made a spin move and got the puck on net. It was stopped by Graham who also denied Zack Phillips on the rebound attempt.

At 16:41, a big scrum behind the Drummondville net resulted in a fight between Saab and Jonathan Oligny. The two had been chatting in the corner for some time and finally dropped the gloves for a long tilt. Tesink somehow got an extra penalty out of the scrum. On the power play, the Volts had some good pressure going but couldn't get on the board.

19:47, Phillips took a high sticking penalty which would put the Volts on the power play to start the second period.

Shots in the opening frame were 7-3 in favour of Saint John.

SECOND PERIOD

On the power play that carried over, Bryce Milson had a chance in front but had his stick lifted just prior to getting a shot off. That would be it for the Voltigeurs’ man advantage opportunity.

Not long after Drummondville hit the post, Zack Phillips made it a 3-0 game. At 5:31, Phillips made his way across the blue line and slipped through a few defenders before whipping a backhander past Graham to complete the beautiful play.

Shortly after the goal, Pierre Durepos fired a point shot on net that was deflected and stopped by the Volts ‘tender.

Saint John went back to the power play at 8:05. Exactly one-minute after the penalty was called, Graham stopped a Phillips shot but let the rebound go to Tomas Jurco. The Slovak had an open cage to give the Sea Dogs a 4-0 lead.

At 10:18, it looked as though a Kevin Gagne shot had given Saint John a 5-0 edge. But Stephen MacAulay was called for interference to erase the goal and give the home team a power play. At the same time, Simon Giroux replaced Graham in net.

On the power play, the Volts did nothing.

They were given another man advantage chance at 12:58 as Tesink headed off again. Then Nathan Beaulieu joined him the sin bin at 13:25 to give them a five-on-three advantage. On that power play chance, Matthew Andreacchi tried to centre the puck but it hit something and slipped past Sea Dogs goaltender Mathieu Corbeil to make it a 4-1 contest.

A big scrum in the Drummondville crease at 16:07 resulted in a Sea Dogs power play. On the advantage, Danick Gauthier had the best chance as he just missed the corner with a hard shot.

Shots were 10-8 Drummondville in the middle frame.

THIRD PERIOD

Jurco had a good chance early as he broke through the defense but had the puck slide off his stick.

The Dogs went to yet another power play at 4:25 after Milson and Galiev collided knee-on-knee in a bit of a scary incident - both would be okay though. The Sea Dogs’ power play did basically nothing during the two-minute span.

The Volts started to get some pressure on halfway through the frame. Maxime Vellemaire let a backhand shot go that was stopped. Then, Olivier Archambault made a nice spin move in front and get a shot off that was padded away by Corbeil.

Beaulieu headed to the box at 12:17. On the man advantage at 14:10, Oligny sent the puck cross ice to an open Archambault who slid the disc in to make it a two-goal game.

The Sea Dogs’ penalty woes continued at 14:18 as Saab was sent off. Drummondville’s best chance came when Corbeil made an unreal glove save on Milson.

Later in the frame, Tesink nearly made it 5-2 but sent it wide. Then Gauthier was robbed in close by Giroux.

The Volts pulled their netminder in the final minute but it was too late, giving the Sea Dogs their fifth straight victory.

Shots were 11-5 Drummondville in the third.

Saint John went 1-for-4 on the power play while Drummondville went 2-for-7.


Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation