RECAP: Win Is A Win. Dogs Win 4-3.

FINAL: Rouyn-Noranda 3, Saint John 4

SAINT JOHN – It wasn’t pretty, but the Saint John Sea Dogs escaped with a 4-3 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Wednesday night at Harbour Station.

The Huskies, who entered action in 16^th place in the league, battled with the Sea Dogs up until the final horn. They managed to outshoot Saint John 30-29 but were not able to outscore them on this night.

Saint John had their struggles offensively, but luckily their power play clicked when they needed it most. The Sea Dogs went two-for-two on the man advantage with one of those goals being the game-winner.

The big dogs stepped up with the offense struggling as Zack Phillips netted a pair, Charles-Olivier Roussel registered the winner and Danick Gauthier scored his league-leading 23^rd goal of the season. Mathieu Corbeil was solid in net for Saint John, making 27 saves for the win.

The Sea Dogs were once again without three of their top forwards in Ryan Tesink, Jonathan Huberdeau and Stanislav Galiev. Tesink could play Friday in Prince Edward Island while Huberdeau and Galiev will still be out for a little while yet.

Although it was ugly in many ways, the Sea Dogs will take any win they can get with this depleted lineup.

Rouyn-Noranda had two goals from Mathieu Brisebois and a solo marker from Mathieu Lemay. Robin Gusse allowed four goals on 29 shots in the loss. The Huskies went zero-for-two on the power play.

Saint John headed to the power play at 1:24 of the first period. On the man advantage, Phillips was at the side of the crease and looked as though he was going to pass. Instead, he kept the puck and beat Gusse five-hole to put Saint John up 1-0 at 1:44.

Saint John had plenty of opportunities to double their lead as the period grew on. Gauthier had a great chance as a pass from Phillips found him down low but he was unable to grab the disc to get a shot off.

Gauthier did make it a 2-0 game at 19:32. After Tomas Jurco made a great play to strip a Huskies defenseman of the puck in front of the crease, he centred for Gauthier who had a wide open net to make it 2-0 Sea Dogs.

Saint John played fairly well in the first. Shots were 14-6 Sea Dogs.

Soon after Maxime St-Cyr was stopped by the glove of Corbeil, Rouyn-Noranda headed to the power play at 1:20 as Spencer MacDonald headed off. But Saint John would produce a solid kill and maintain the lead.

The Huskies had plenty of pressure on in the second, much more than in the first. At 8:25, the visitors found the scoreboard as Brisebois connected. Corbeil was forced out of position while making the previous save, giving a wide open cage to the Rouyn-Noranda defenseman as he crept in from the line.

Scott Oke had a breakaway a few moments later but was denied by Gusse. Robbie DeFulviis had a great chance later on for the visitors but was denied by Corbeil.

Saint John made it a 3-1 contest at 15:24. Nathan Beaulieu was at the dot and centered for a streaking Phillips. The Minnesota Wild prospect fired the puck past Gusse to extend Saint John’s lead.

Shots were 14-9 Huskies in the middle stanza.

The Huskies made it a one-goal game at 3:12 of the third. Brisebois let a shot go through some traffic in front that snuck past Corbeil to make it a 3-2 affair.

Then at the five-minute mark, Rouyn-Noranda tied things up as a cross ice pass found Lemay at the side of the goal. He was all alone and found a hole between Corbeil and the post to make it 3-3.

Grant West tried to fire his team up 20 seconds later as he dropped the gloves with Antoine Quevillon. The fight didn’t do a whole lot as play went back-and-forth for some time. Past the halfway mark, Phillips was robbed in front by the pad of Gusse.

The Sea Dogs headed to the man advantage at 16:19 and immediately called a timeout. At 16:43, Gauthier fed Roussel with a beautiful pass from behind the goal line. The defenseman beat Gusse with a low shot to put the Dogs up by a goal.

Things got interesting again at 17:30 as Kevin Gagne was called for hooking. The Huskies had plenty of opportunities and pressure on but failed to net the equalizer before the horn blew.

Shots were 10-6 Rouyn-Noranda in the final frame.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow on SN.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to PEI to face the PEI Rocket on Friday at 7pm.