Our recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs’ power play went 0-for-6 on Thursday night at Harbour Station as the Memorial Cup champions fell 4-1 to the Memorial Cup hosting Shawinigan Cataractes. It was Shawinigan’s final visit to Saint John this regular season.
The Telegraph-Journal’s recap. Paywalled.
La Nouvelliste’s recap. The Sea Dogs pretty much played one period of hockey against one of the best teams in the country.
L’Hebdo du St. Maurice’s recap. Saint John’s power play was pretty bad.
SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. Peter Sakaris had two goals, and Michael Chaput and Michael Bournival also tallied for the Cataractes. Gabriel Girard stopped 29 shots for the win as Shawinigan climbed to 30-10-2-2 and evened the season series at a game apiece.
The Canadian Press’ recap. Saint John (31-13-2) had the best record in the QMJHL until Shawinigan's (30-10-4) win helped them tie in points at 64.
SN Live Blog replay. Sir Charles Coyle had the lone Saint John goal.
MISSING IN ACTION: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Ryan Tesink (knee), Stanislav Galiev (wrist), and Devon Oliver-Dares (head) due to injuries on Thursday night. Maxime Villemaire has left the team to think about his playing future.
McGUIGAN: Forward Dylan McGuigan was called up for this game. He had a fight late in the third period to go along with two hits. The forward now has two assists in nine games with Saint John this year.
McGuigan has eight goals and 13 assists in 35 games with the Maritime Junior Hockey League’s Truro Bearcats this season.
PRE-GAME CEREMONY: There was a pre-game ceremony on Thusday night to honour the Sea Dogs and Cataractes that took part in international tournaments over the holidays. Jonathan Huberdeau and Nathan Beaulieu both wore their Team Canada jerseys at centre ice and were joined by world junior teammates Michael Bournival and Brandon Gormley of the Cataractes. Slovakian Tomas Jurco and American Charlie Coyle were also honoured as was Team Atlantic under-17 member Olivier Cooper. They were all given plaques and a standing ovation.
LINES: Here is what the line combos looked like last night, as tweeted by the Sea Dogs.
Huberdeau-Phillips-Coyle
MacAulay-Gauthier-Jurco
Cooper-Cameron-Kelly
MacDonald-McGuigan-West
Beaulieu-Durepos
Gagne-Roussel
Saab-Seed
COYLE’S DEBUT: Charlie Coyle had a pretty solid debut. He played well on the top line with Jonathan Huberdeau on the opposite wing and Zack Phillips at centre. He scored his first QMJHL goal at 10:33 of the first period, taking a nice pass from Huberdeau and beating Shawinigan goaltender Gabriel Girard in front.
The Minnesota Wild prospect finished the game with a goal, a -1 rating, a team high eight shots, one hit and six faceoff wins. He didn’t look out of place.
TOP LINE: That top line of Huberdeau, Phillips and Coyle was the only line that could connect for a goal on Thursday night. All three picked up points on the marker. Coyle finished the contest with eight shots, Huberdeau had five and Phillips had four.
GORMLEY: Brandon Gormley made his Shawinigan debut last night and played like how Brandon Gormley usually plays. Gormley, along with fellow defenseman Morgan Ellis and goaltender Gabriel Girard, were shutting things down so much it’s amazing the power stayed on in the building.
Gormley finished the game with a +1 rating and one shot in net. He wore No. 36, which looked quite bizarre.
Shawinigan’s defense going up against Saint John’s offense would be quite the playoff series.
SCORING FIRST: The Cataractes improved to an impressive 20-1-2-0 when scoring first this season with the win.
STREAKING: Shawinigan is the hottest team in the league right now having won four straight. They are 9-1-0-0 in their last 10 games.
The loss ended Saint John’s three-game winning streak. They are 5-4-0-1 in their last 10.
POWER PLAY: Ugh. Saint John’s power play was terrible last night, going 0-for-6. The Sea Dogs haven’t had a whole lot of practice time since the world juniors ended, so hopefully things improve over the next few games.
Credit the Shawinigan defense though. They were shutting things down. Gabriel Girard was also good in the Cataractes crease, making 29 saves on the night and picking up first star honours.
VS SHAWINIGAN: The Cataractes have now picked up three of four points against Saint John this season, beating them last night and earning a point in an overtime loss back in December.
There are two more head-to-head meetings between the Dogs and Cataractes this season. Their next meeting is on February 4 at the Bionest Centre.
NOTES: Decent crowd of 4,065 at Harbour Station despite some bad weather on a Thursday night… Danick Gauthier was a -3… Michael Bournival had a goal and two assists… Kirill Kabanov had six shots for Shawinigan… the Sea Dogs fell to 18-4-0-1 at Harbour Station this season… the Cataractes improved to 14-4-2-1 on the road… the Dogs and Cats are now tied atop the QMJHL standing with 64 points. Shawinigan has played two fewer games.
HIGHLIGHTS: Here are the highlights courtesy of SeaDogsTV.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Saturday night at Harbour Station at 7pm.
Photo Credit: Cataractes Website
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