RECAP: Shooting Down The Herd. Dogs Win 7-3.

FINAL: Halifax 3, Saint John 7

SAINT JOHN – The Saint John Sea Dogs have done most of their scoring in second periods this season. But on Saturday night at Harbour Station, the Sea Dogs exploded in the third period en route to a 7-3 victory over the Halifax Mooseheads.

The Sea Dogs scored four times in the final frame to pick up their 33^rd win of the season and second straight. Saint John had scored 53 goals and allowed 56 in third periods this season entering the game, a far cry from their +39 second period goal differential.

Saint John played a pretty solid game on Saturday, showing off a lot of offensive skill in an entertaining contest. Their top line, which struggled last Saturday against Drummondville, was clicking. Five players had two more or points for Saint John.

Charlie Coyle and Tomas Jurco each scored twice for the Sea Dogs. Stephen MacAulay, Danick Gauthier and Aidan Kelly added solo markers. Jonathan Huberdeau and Grant West both had two assists. In goal, Mathieu Corbeil didn’t have his greatest performance but still made 29 saves to pick up the win.

The Mooseheads, who are now 4-5-0-1 in their last 10 games, had goals from Darcy Ashley, Martin Frk and Konrad Abeltshauser. Zachary Fucale allowed seven goals on 37 shots before getting pulled. Backup Marc-Olivier Daigle stopped all four shots he faced in relief.

FIRST PERIOD

The first five minutes of the frame featured a good pace but very few legit scoring chances. Around the 14-minute mark, Danick Gauthier just missed a chance to tip the puck on goal. A few moments later, Nathan MacKinnon had a chance in front at the other end but couldn’t beat Mathieu Corbeil.

Darcy Ashley gave the Moose a 1-0 lead at 10:09. Martin Frk was along the goal line and sent a backhand pass across the top of the crease and found Ashley who had a wide open cage. Corbeil was way, way out of position on the play.

Charlie Coyle tied the game at 1-1 at 11:28. He was sprung on a breakaway at the blue line and made a nice deke to get around Zachary Fucale and tie the match up.

Just nine seconds later, Jonathan Huberdeau made an unreal feed to Coyle who had an open cage to put the Sea Dogs in front by score of 2-1. That marker gave Coyle his fourth goal in just his third QMJHL game.

Saint John headed to the power play at 16:17. Huberdeau had the Dogs’ best chance on the man advantage, spinning in front and getting a backhander on net that was stopped by Fucale.

Shots were 13-10 in favour of the home team in the opening frame.

INTERMISSION

We tweeted this:

SECOND PERIOD

Early on, Nathan Beaulieu fed Huberdeau who fired a one-timer on goal but was stopped.

At 7:38, Gauthier was left alone on an odd-man rush and fired one past Fucale to give Saint John a 3-1 lead. Totally called that.

A little later, Coyle had a partial break looking for his third goal of the game but was denied.

Some rough stuff at 10:49 resulted in some four-on-four play. During that span, Tomas Jurco was alone in front and made a deke but was robbed by a diving Fucale.

Halifax headed to the man advantage at 11:44 as Huberdeau headed off. On the power play at 12:41, Martin Frk blasted the puck on net. Corbeil couldn’t get all of it as the puck trickled in to make it 3-2.

Saint John got quite a few chances as the period came to an end. Jurco let a shot go that was stopped nicely by Fucale. Then, Gauthier setup Jurco again and fired high and wide. In the final minutes, Zack Phillips hit the post.

Shots in the middle frame were 15-13 in favour of the Sea Dogs.

THIRD PERIOD

The Mooseheads tied it up at 3-3 just 45 seconds into the third. Following a few good Halifax scoring opportunities, Konrad Abeltshauser fired a point shot through some traffic and in.

But Saint John quickly retook the lead. At 1:08, Stephen MacAulay batted a backhand shot past Fucale’s blocker and in to give the Dogs a 4-3 advantage.

Saint John made it a 5-3 game at 5:12. Jurco was alone and the slot and made a nice move to the slide the puck in low glove side and give his squad a two-goal advantage.

Around the 5:30 mark, it appeared Jason Seed had scored but the goal was quickly waved off because of, what people on Twitter told us, some goaltender interference.

The Sea Dogs blew things open at 7:38 as Aidan Kelly scored to make it 6-3. The goal went under a brief review but it would stand.

Saint John finished their scoring run at 8:35. Jurco stripped a Mooseheads defenseman of the puck and went in alone. He deked out Fucale and sent the disc up and over him to give the home team a 7-3 lead.

Halifax went to an abbreviated power play at 13:02 but couldn’t get much going.

At 18:14, some rough stuff along the boards resulted in some penalties. But none of it would matter as the Dogs went on to win 7-3.

Shots in the third were 13-9 Saint John.

SCRATCHES: Saint John’s scratches were forwards Devon Oliver-Dares (head), Ryan Tesink (knee), Stanislav Galiev (wrist) and Maxime Villemaire (gone home).

CALLED UP: Affiliate forward McKenzie Brown was recalled for this game. He finished the contest with an assist, two shots, and two hits.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst to battle the Titan tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.