GAMEDAY 10 - vs Oceanic

GAMEDAY

Rimouski Oceanic vs Saint John Sea Dogs

Tonight, October 8, 2011 at 7pm

Harbour Station

PREVIEW

SAINT JOHN – Coming off an ugly 7-0 loss a week ago, the Saint John Sea Dogs will look to erase those memories this evening at Harbour Station when they host the Rimouski Oceanic. Game time is 7pm.

Last Saturday’s game in Victoriaville was the first time the Sea Dogs had been shutout in nearly two years. Luckily for Saint John, the Florida Panthers sent some offensive help to the team this past week as they reassigned Jonathan Huberdeau back to junior.

Huberdeau was cut by the Panthers on Monday and is expected to make his 2011-12 Sea Dogs regular season debut tonight.

“Jo was a key player for us last year and we expect him to be again,” Sea Dogs director of hockey operations and associate coach Mike Kelly said in a team release earlier this week. “He’s a big part of our lineup and we’re glad to have him back.”

Named the Memorial Cup and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Playoff Most Valuable Player last season, the 18-year old recorded 43 goals and 62 assists in 67 regular season games. In the post-season he added another 16 goals and 14 helpers in 19 contests.

The newly acquired Charles-Olivier Roussel is also expected to make his debut with the club tonight. Drafted in the second-round by the Nashville Predators in the 2009 National Hockey League Entry Draft, the Sea Dogs acquired the 20-year old defenseman in exchange for two draft picks on Tuesday.

Rousel, who was property of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada until the trade, had five goals nad 25 assists in 59 games for the Montreal Junior last year.

Saint John’s opponent tonight, the Oceanic, enter play with a 6-4-0-0 record and have won three straight games. They’ve outscored their opposition 17-4 over the past trio of games.

Rimouski is on a Maritime road swing that began last night with a 4-1 win in Charlottetown against the PEI Rocket. They continue their trip tonight in Saint John and wrap it up tomorrow in Moncton.

NOTES: Jerome Gauthier-Luduc leads the Oceanic in scoring with five goals and eight assists for 13 points in just five games. Alex Belzile and Alexandre Mallet are second in scoring with 12 points each… Fredericton native Peter Trainor has a team leading six goals. Gauthier-Leduc is second with five… Belzile and Mallet each have nine helpers. Gauthier-Leduc has eight… Trainor is a team worst –7… Etienne Boutet, who was suspended five-games earlier this week for a head shot, is a Rimouski best +8… Mallet has served an Oceanic high 21 penalty minutes… Rimouski has outscored their opponents 37-31 in their first 10 games of the season… owners of the fourth best power play in the league with a rating of 29.6%... the Oceanic’s penalty kill is running at 84.8% which is good for third in the league… 3-1-0-0 on the road this season… Belizle has the second most power play assists in the league with seven... according to L’Advantage, Alex Emond and Alexandre Tanguay missed last night’s game in PEI with injuries.

IN NET: Jacob Gervais-Chouinard has played the most minutes in net for Rimouski this season. He has a record of 3-2-0-0, a goals against average of 3.18 and a save percentage of 0.899.

Carl Hozjan is also 3-2-0-0 with a 2.70 GAA and a 0.887 save percentage.

ROAD TRIPPING: This is the second game of a three-game Maritime road trip for the Oceanic. They opened it up with a 4-1 win in PEI last night, play Saint John this evening and visit Moncton tomorrow afternoon.

SUSPENDED: Rimouski will be without the services of defenseman Etienne Boutet tonight who is serving a five-game suspension for his head hit on Moncton Wildcats forward Thomas Flynn last weekend.

LAST GAME: The Oceanic are coming off a 4-1 win in PEI last night against the Rocket. Petr Straka, Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, Peter Trainor and Liam O’Brien all scored in the win. Carl Hozjan made 20 saves for the victory.

Best Oceanic Video We Could Find On YouTube: The Rimouski Oceanic and their brilliant mock of the Montreal Junior’s trap game.

NOTES: Danick Gauthier still leads the Sea Dogs in scoring with five goals and two assists for seven points. Stanislav Galiev, Zack Phillips and Scott Oke all have six points each… Gauthier’s five goals are still a team high. Galiev and Oliver Cooper all have three goals each… Phillips, Oke and Aidan Kelly all have a Sea Dog high four assists… Oke is a team high +7… Jason Seed is a team worst -8… Spencer MacDonald has a team high 21 penalty minutes… no Sea Dog has scored more than one power play goal… Gauthier has taken a team high 25 shots on goal… the Sea Dogs have been outscored 38-20 in nine games to start the year… 3-1-0-0 on home ice and have outscored their opponents 17-12… Saint John has the worst power play in the league with a rating of 15.4%... their penalty kill is operating at 70.2% which is good for 15^th in the QMJHL.

IN NET: Mathieu Corbeil is coming off his first loss of the season last Saturday in Victoriaville. Corbeil has gone 4-1-0-0 with a 2.70 goals against average and a 0.910 save percentage since returning from Columbus Blue Jackets training camp.

DEBUTS: Jonathan Huberdeau is expected to make his season debut while Charlers-Olivier Roussel is expected to make his Sea Dogs debut this evening.

Huberdeau, selected third overall in the NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, has been at Panthers training camp for several weeks but was assigned back to junior on Monday.

Roussel, a 20-year old Nashville Predators prospect, was acquired by the Sea Dogs on Tuesday from the Blainville-Boisbraind Armada in exchange for two draft picks. Roussel has yet to play a QMJHL game this season.

HURTING: It looks like Stanislav Galiev will be out of action for the next little while. It was reported yesterday that Galiev would miss both weekend games with an ‘upper-body injury.’ The 19-year old Washington Capitals prospect then tweeted a picture of his arm/wrist/hand in acast.

SENT DOWN: The Telegraph-Journal reports today that defenseman Benjamin Hade has been reassigned to his midget AAA team. Hade had no points and was a -3 in five games.

LAST GAME: Saint John is coming off a 7-0 loss in Victoriaville on Saturday. Mathieu Corbeil allowed three goals on 15 shots while Charlie Millen let in four on 21 shots.

OTHER GAMES

Halifax at P.E.I. - 7:00 PM ADT
Shawinigan at Blainville-Boisbriand - 7:00 PM EDT
Baie-Comeau at Quebec - 7:00 PM EDT

THE RINK

Venue: Harbour Station

Capacity: 6,297

Average Attendance: 3,635

QMJHL Arena Guide

MEDIA GUIDE

Radio (Sea Dogs): News 88.9 FM

Live Web Feed: Telus

Television: None

Post-Game Coverage: Station Nation, Telegraph-Journal, L’Advantage

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.

NEXT GAME

The Sea Dogs host the Victoriaville Tigres tomorrow afternoon at 3pm at Harbour Station.