Sea Dogs Notebook

SUNDAY

The Sea Dogs are back in action on Sunday afternoon at 3pm at Harbour Station. It’s Support Our Troops Day and CAA Family Fun Day. Sunday’s game will also be the last Sea Dogs home game until November 24.

Saint John will take on the Shawinigan Cataractes tomorrow for the first time since the Memorial Cup semi-final. Both teams have dramatically different rosters this season as they both enter the opening stages of a rebuild.

The Sea Dogs are having a much better start to the season than Shawinigan. The Cataractes will enter action tomorrow with a 2-13-1-1 record and sit dead last in the QMJHL.

GALIEV

Former Sea Dog Stanislav Galiev netted the shootout winner in the Hershey Bears 3-2 win over the Springfield Falcons on Friday night. From the Bears blog Sweetest Hockey on Earth:

Into the shootout, both teams scored in the first round of the skills competition to make it 1-1. Jeff Taffe for Hershey tallied in the top of the round, as Matt Calvert answered moments later. It stayed 1-1 into round seven when Stanislav Galiev in his first AHL shootout attempt bombed a slap shot to the top-shelf of the cage.

Galiev has yet to score a goal in regulation time in his AHL career. His has one assist in eight games this season.

HIGHMORE

The Sea Dogs newsletter had a brief article on Matthew Highmore. The forward, who the Sea Dogs selected eighth overall in June’s QMJHL Entry Draft, is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery.

The Dogs Bytes Newsletter reports that he “has recently started taking part in non-contact drills at practice.”

"It was exciting," said Highmore. "Anytime you can get back onto the ice after a period of time that you haven't been there is always exciting. It felt nice."

There was no mention about when he may make his QMJHL debut.

PETERSEN

Former Sea Dogs forward Nick Petersen was named the East Coast Hockey League’s Player of the Month for October on Thursday.

From the ECHL’s release:

Petersen led the league in October with 14 points, and was tied for the league lead with six goals, as the Solar Bears went 4-1-2 in the opening month of their inaugural ECHL season. 

The 23-year-old opened the month on a six-game scoring streak, tallying mulitple points in each of the six games. He tallied three points (1g-2a) in an 8-2 win at Florida on Oct. 19 and notched the first hat trick in the Solar Bears’ ECHL history in a 5-3 victory against South Carolina on Oct. 25.

Petersen recorded 79 points in 59 regular season games with Saint John in 2009-10 and added another 28 points in 21 playoff games.

TESINK

The QMJHL website had an article on Ryan Tesink this week. He discusses the St. Louis Blues and some of the players he has played with since joining the Sea Dogs.

BEAULIEU

The Montreal Gazette had an article on Nathan Beaulieu and Jacques Beaulieu on Wednesday. Jacques Beaulieu, the former Sea Dogs head coach and general manager, had some interesting comments.

“I remember one of the owners wasn’t too happy with the selection, but he turned out to be the 17th player selected in the NHL draft, so I guess I made a good choice,” Jacques said about drafting Nathan back in 2008.

Jacques also commented on the nucleus that went to three straight league finals and two Memorial Cup tournaments.

Speaking of Nathan Beaulieu, he recorded his first AHL point on Saturday – an assist – in Hamilton’s 4-3 win over the Rochester Americans.

BEAULIEU

More Jacques Beaulieu goodness. He answers questions bi-weekly in a column in the Sarnia Observer. He had a few QMJHL related questions this week.

“Then I moved up to the Major Jr ranks as an assistant with the London Knights, eventually getting my shot with the Saint John Sea Dogs where I drafted several members of their Memorial Cup winning team,” Beaulieu answered when asked about his hockey history.

“The main differences between the two leagues are perhaps off the ice,” Beaulieu wrote when asked about the differences between the OHL and QMJHL. “The travel in the QMJHL was much more taxing than it is in the OHL. Here in southern Ontario, we have the luxury of playing the majority of our games and coming home and sleeping in your same bed that night. In the 'Q' there are a lot of long road trips and a lot of nights in a hotel. I enjoyed my time in both leagues very much.”

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation