POSTSCRIPT: Eagles 1, Sea Dogs 4

A collection of recaps from last night’s 4-1 Saint John Sea Dogs win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles…

Our recap. The veterans came to play for the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday night.

The Telegraph-Journal’s recap (paywall). The Saint John Sea Dogs jumped back to .500 on the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season wtih a 4-1 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in front of 3,881 fans at Harbour Station on Saturday night.

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

The Canadian Press’ recap. At Saint John, N.B., Stephen MacAulay scored twice and set up one more while Sebastien Auger stopped 25 shots as the Sea Dogs (12-12-0) beat Cape Breton (7-15-5), which has dropped four games in a row.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs and Cape Breton Screaming Eagles met at Harbour Station as the Sea Dogs took the contest 4-1 in front of 3,881 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Saturday night.

CapeBretonEagles.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs scored three times in the first period as they went on to down the visiting Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 4-1 in front of 3,881 fans on hand at Harbour Station on Saturday.

MISSING IN ACTION: The Sea Dogs were without Mackenzie Brown and Benjamin Hade due to injuries on Saturday.  Healthy scratches were Steven Duda, Jason Seed, Devon Oliver-Dares, Andreas Tsogkas, and Michael Mastrangelo.

VITO’S: The Sea Dogs paid tribute to the 1992 Allan Cup champion Saint John Vito’s last night. They wore retro Vito’s jerseys for the game. There was a pre-game ceremony with several players from the ‘92 Vito’s team on hand. The Allan Cup (pictured) was also in the house.

FIRST PERIOD: Saturday’s first period was certainly Saint John’s best opening frame in some time. Stephen MacAulay scored twice and Jonathan Huberdeau added another to make it 3-0 Sea Dogs after 20 minutes. Shots were 10-8 Dogs.

HUBERDEAU: With an assist on Saint John’s first goal, Jonathan Huberdeau now has 144 career helpers which is the most by any Sea Dogs player. He passed Michael Kirkpatrick’s team record. The Sea Dogs captain finished the game with a goal and an assist to give him 33 points in 24 games. He was also an impressive +4 last night.

GAGNE: Kevin Gagne scored one of the stranger goals you’ll ever see in the second period. At 4:07, the veteran defenseman blasted the puck past Eagles goaltender David Honzik and through the netting. Play continued, but after a review, it was ruled a good goal. The 20-year old defenseman had a goal and an assist in the contest to give him 19 points on the year.

CULEK: The newly acquired Jakub Culek has been playing well for the Eagles. He scored Cape Breton’s only goal last night in the second period. Since coming over in a trade, Culek has four goals and two assists in six games.

HIGHMORE: Forward Matthew Highmore, the eighth overall pick in the 2012 QMJHL Entry Draft, made his QMJHL debut for the Sea Dogs on Saturday. He had missed all season after having off-season shoulder surgery. As you’d expect, he didn’t play a whole lot. He finished the game with no shots but did go 3-for-6 on faceoffs.

DUREPOS: 20-year old defenseman Pierre Durepos made his season debut last night. He had yet to play this year due to injury. He certainly made an impact quickly, helping setup both of Saint John’s opening two goals. He was a +3 in the opening frame.

WELCOME BACK: Forward Spencer Smallman and defenseman Jurij Repe also returned to the Saint John lineup after missing time due to injuries. Smallman hadn’t played since October 12 while Repe had been out since November 10. Smallman finished a -1 and recorded one hit while Repe had two shots and a hit.

VS CB: This was the third meeting of the season and of the month between the Sea Dogs and Screaming Eagles. Saint John is now 2-1-0-0 against Cape Breton while the Eagles are 1-2-0-0 against the Dogs.

HOME: This was Saint John’s first home game since November 4 and just their second game at Harbour Station all November. Last night’s win was their first home victory since October 28 against Chicoutimi. The Sea Dogs improved to 6-5-0-0 on the home ice.

STANDINGS: Saint John got back to the .500 mark with the win. They are now 12-12-0-0 which places them 13^th overall in the QMJHL and fourth in the Telus Maritimes Division.

NOTES: Olivier LeBlanc was injured in the first period after being hit from behind but he did return soon after… Cape Breton defenseman Gareth Nicholson recorded his first QMJHL point, an assist, last night… the Screaming Eagles have now lost four straight… Loic Leduc was a -3… Bronson Beaton had four shots… bit of a quiet game for William Carrier and Alexandre Lavoie… Stephen Woodworth had four hits… only 10 of Cape Breton’s 26 shots were considered dangerous… MacAulay, Huberdeau, and Ryan Tesink were all a +4… Kevin Gagne had six shots… Oliver Cooper had four hits.

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV.

OUT OF TOWN

Baie-Comeau 5 at Moncton 6
Sherbrooke 2 at Rimouski 1
Acadie-Bathurst 2 at Rouyn-Noranda 6
Shawinigan 1 at Val-d'Or 4

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Baie-Comeau Drakkar today at 3pm. Be there. 

Photo: Vito's Facebook