POSTSCRIPT: Sea Dogs 2, Cataractes 6

A collection of recaps from last night’s 6-2 Saint John Sea Dogs loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes…

Our recap. File this one under the “games to forget” category.

News 88.9’s recap. Featuring Tim Roszell’s goal calls.

L’Hebdo du St. Maurice’s recap. Three fights in this game.

Le Nouvelliste’s recap. Chaput, Kabanov, and Zlobin were doing stuff all game.

The Canadian Press’ recap. At Shawinigan, Que., Anton Zlobin had two goals and three assists as the Cataractes (44-15-7) beat Saint John (47-15-3), which lost in regulation time for the first time in 19 games.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. Saint John could have solidified the No. 1 spot and home ice advantage throughout the President’s Cup playoffs, but the Cataractes got two goals and three assists from Anton Zlobin to keep their hopes of winning the Jean Rougeau Trophy alive.

SN Live Blog Replay. The Sea Dogs were unable to score five goals in the final few minutes.

MISSING IN ACTION: Forward Tomas Jurco missed his second straight game due to academic commitments. Forward Devon Oliver-Dares remains out with a broken collarbone. Oliver Cooper was a healthy scratch.

FIRST PLACE: Well, the Sea Dogs failed to clinch first overall in the QMJHL on Sunday. They could have done so with a victory over the Cataractes. It complicates things a bit – and does give Shawinigan an opportunity to win it – but the Sea Dogs are still very close to wrapping it up.

The most points Shawinigan can get is 99 as they have just two games remaining. Saint John has 97 points with three games left. So, there really isn’t any need to hit the panic just yet – especially since the Sea Dogs play Cape Breton twice.

Finishing first overall will give Saint John the Jean Rougeau Trophy and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs for a third straight season.

STREAK: Yesterday’s loss ended an impressive streak. The Sea Dogs had gone 18 straight games – 17-0-0-1 – without a loss in regulation time. Their last regulation loss came on January 12 against none other than the Shawinigan Cataractes.

VS SHAWINIGAN: The Sea Dogs finish with a 2-2-0-0 record against the Cataractes and Shawinigan finishes with a 2-1-1-0 record against Saint John. Both of Shawinigan’s wins were lopsided while Saint John’s wins were both decided by one-goal.

All four games were very intense and extremely physical. You can tell these two teams aren't fans of each other. If they do meet in the playoffs, it could be quite a show.

GAGNE: Kevin Gagne’s assist on Stanislav Galiev’s first period goal was the 100^th point of his QMJHL career. He now has eight goals and 25 assists on the year in 65 games.

Gagne’s been on a bit of a roll of late. He has gotten an assist in three straight games and has assisted in five straight road games.

ZLOBIN: It was a huge game Anton Zlobin. The undrafted forward scored twice and added three assists, leading his team to victory. Zlobin now has 39 goals and 35 assists in 64 games this year with Shawinigan.

PHILLIPS: Zack Phillips, of all people, had a fight on Sunday. He dropped the gloves with Peter Sakaris in the second period and fared fairly well. According to HockeyFights.com, it was Phillips’ second fight this season and the third of his career. He fought Jordan Murray earlier this season and Alexis Bernier way back in October of 2009.

There were two other fights in the game as well as Grant West faced Mathieu Gagnon and Nathan Beaulieu took on Mitchell Maynard.

SPECIAL TEAMS: There wasn’t a whole lot of positives for Saint John in this game, but one of them was their special teams. They went 2/4 on the power play and a perfect 7/7 on the penalty kill.

Their penalty kill got plenty of work in the first period, killing off two five-on-threes.

DELAYED START: This game was delayed by roughly 30 minutes as a sheet of glass broke behind the net and had to be replaced. It was quite an operation as a fork lift and several ice workers were needed to replace the sheet. When it was finally replaced, the ice still had not yet been cleaned following warm-up. Hopefully they get things running faster in time for the Memorial Cup.

SCORING FIRST: This was just the third time this season that Saint John lost a game when scoring first. They fell to 33-3-0-0 on the year.

DIVISION: This was the final game this season for the Sea Dogs against a Telus East Division opponent. They fell to 10-6-0-1 against the toughest division in the league.

The Dogs are 28-7-0-2 against the Maritimes Division and 9-2-0-0 against the Telus West.

NOTES: Saint John allowed three goals in the second period – a period they usually dominate… Stephen MacAulay, Ryan Tesink, Kevin Gagne, Pierre Durepos, and Maxime Villemaire were all a -3… Jason Seed and Zack Phillips were the only Sea Dogs without minus ratings… Charles Roussel had a Saint John high seven shots… Jonathan  Narbonne, Michael Chaput, and Anton Zlobin were all a +5… Micahel Bournival had a Shawinigan high six shots… Mathieu Gagnon was the only Cataracte without a shot on goal. They had 49 total shots… Vincent Arseneau had three hits… the Sea Dogs picked up just one of a possible four points on their two-game trip through Quebec.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Halifax to take on the Mooseheads on Wednesday night at 7pm.