POSTSCRIPT: Phoenix 3, Sea Dogs 2

A collection of recaps from last night’s 3-2 Saint John Sea Dogs loss to the Sherbrooke Phoenix…

Our recap. The Sherbrooke Phoenix have had the Saint John Sea Dogs’ number this month.

The Telegraph-Journal’s recap (paywall). The Saint John Sea Dogs got better as the game went on, but their improvement couldn’t erase a brutal first period that led to a 3-2 loss to the Sherbrooke Phoenix Saturday night at Harbour Station.

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

The Canadian Press’ recap. Jacob Gervais-Chouinard stopped 32-of-34 shots and Denis Kamaev's goal at 4:09 of the third period stood up as the winner as Sherbrooke (14-28-6) handed the Sea Dogs (19-28-0) their fourth straight defeat.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs hosted the Sherbrooke Phoenix at Harbour Station for the first time as the Phoenix took the contest 3-2 in front of 4,396 fans in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Saturday night.

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without the services of Jonathan Huberdeau (NHL – Florida Panthers), Connor Donaghey (shoulder), Michael Abbott (lower body), Jurij Repe (broken hand), and Justin Dickinson (healthy) on Saturday night. Also, News 88.9 reports that defenseman David Mosher has been sent back down to the MHL’s Truro Bearcats.

SCORING FIRST: Sherbrooke scored the opening goal as Carl Neill scored at 12:17 of the first period. It was just the 14^th time this season that the Phoenix had scored the opening goal of a game.

FIGHTS: After Vladislav Lysenko leveled Marcus Cuomo at the blue line, Stephen Anderson dropped the gloves with Lysenko at 13:49 of the first. Anderson, not surprisingly, also picked up an instigator penalty. It was Anderson’s first career QMJHL fight.

AFTER ONE: It wasn’t a great first period for Saint John. Sherbrooke led 2-0 after one and out shot Saint John 13-4. The Dogs just couldn’t get anything going offensively.

SECOND: Shots were 13-4 in favour of the Phoenix in the first. In the second, they were 12-4 in favour of Saint John. The Dogs had a couple good scoring chances but couldn’t connect. The period will be remembered for the officiating though as they made some confusing calls. Even the clock operators were confused at times.

IZACKY: Sherbrooke scored to make it 3-0 early in the third period. Finally, at 9:27, Jakub Izacky scored a nice goal to get the Dogs on the board. It was his 15^th of the season. The goal seemed to spark Saint John as they finally began to get some offensive pressure on.

VILLEMAIRE: Maxime Villemaire has certainly added some offensive punch to the Sea Dogs lineup since rejoining the team. He had a goal and an assist last night to give him three goals and two assists in eight games this season.

WECKWORTH: Defenseman David Weckowrth made his return to the Saint John lineup on Saturday night. He had not played since December 20 due to a knee injury. He finished the game with one shot on goal and seven minutes in penalties. He had a brief fight against Jean-Christophe Laflamme in the third.

SAAB: Ian Saab picked up two assists last night. It was the first time this season he picked up a point.  He has two assists in eight games.

HADE: Banjamin Hade made his first return to Harbour Station since being traded to Sherbrooke during the holiday trading period. He got a decent amount of ice time and finished the game a +1.

VS SHERBROOKE: This was the third and final meeting of the season between the Sea Dogs and Phoenix. Saint John went 1-2-0-0 against the expansion franchise while the Phoenix went 2-1-0-0 against the Sea Dogs.

STANDINGS: The Sea Dogs fell to 19-28-0-0 on the season and remain fifth in the Telus Maritimes Division and 15^th overall in the league. They’ve also lost three straight. In the overall standings, they are four points back of Bathurst and four points ahead of Sherbrooke.

NOTES: The Phoenix have nice jerseys… pretty good crowd of 4,396 at this one… Ross Yates ran the Sea Dogs bench in Mike Kelly’s absence… Vladislav Lysenko had four hits… Michael McNamee and Jean-Christophe Laflamme each had four shots… Oliver Cooper had six shots… Olivier LeBlanc and Mackenzie Brown had three hits… Saint John’s power play went 0-for-4 and really didn’t do anything.

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV. Not uploaded yet.

OUT OF TOWN

P.E.I. 4 at Cape Breton 2

Quebec 4 at Halifax 2

Acadie-Bathurst 2 at Moncton 4

Shawinigan 0 at Blainville-Boisbriand 9

Rimouski 4 at Drummondville 1

Chicoutimi 2 at Rouyn-Noranda 6

Baie-Comeau 3 at Victoriaville 2 (OT)

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs are in Victoriaville to battle the Tigres on Wednesday night at 8pm.