POSTSCRIPT: Cataractes 3, Sea Dogs 2

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

Our recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs took on the Shawinigan Cataractes on Thursday evening at Harbour Station.

The Telegraph-Journal’s recap (paywall). It was a game both teams needed.

Le Nouvelliste’s recap. Shawinigan is inching closer to a playoff spot.

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

The Canadian Press’ recap. Phil Pietroniro scored the winning goal with under three minutes left to play as the Shawinigan Cataractes edged the Saint John Sea Dogs 3-2 on Thursday in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs couldn’t solve the Shawinigan Cataractes in Thursday’s lone Quebec Major Junior Hockey League contest in front of 3,239 fans at Harbour Station.

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without Matthew Highmore (lower body), Jeremy Doucet (healthy), David Weckworth (knee), and Justin Dickinson (healthy) on Thursday night.

SCHUMACHER: Frank Schumacher seems to really enjoy playing against Saint John. The defenseman scored his third goal of the season in the first period, giving Shawinigan a 1-0 lead after one. Of his three goals this season, two have been against the Sea Dogs. He has three goals and five assists in 13 games.

HITS: Physical game last night. After two periods, the hit total wasn’t too far off the shot total. Total hits, according to the QMJHL website, finished 17-15 in favour of Saint John. Olivier LeBlanc and Maxime Villemaire each had three.

ABBOTT: Defenseman Michael Abbott scored his first goal as a Sea Dog in the third period, blasting the puck from just below the Telus ad and past Shawinigan netminder Marvin Cupper. Abbott’s shot was so hard the puck got stuck in the net and took a moment for the officials to get it out. Abbott now has a goal and five assists in 14 games with Saint John.

Here’s evidence:

Hahaha shot it so hard the puck got stuck in the net!! Not bad for your first goal Abbott #godogsgo @station_nation twitter.com/bennett10137/s…
— Bennett (@bennett10137) February 15, 2013

VS SHAWI: This was the final meeting of the season between the Sea Dogs and Cataractes. Shawinigan won all three games. Saint John will end the season with more wins against Halifax than Shawinigan, which is just bizarre.

STANDINGS: This was a huge win for the Cataractes. They are 17^th overall in the QMJHL and are now just one-point of the Sherbrooke Phoenix who hold the final playoff spot. The Phoenix do have a game in hand.

Meanwhile, Saint John remains 15^th overall with a 20-33-1-0 record.

SCORING FIRST: This was the 20^th time this season that Shawinigan scored first in a game. They improved to 11-7-1-1 in those games.

NOTES: Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. True story… Mike Kelly returned to his position behind the Sea Dogs bench… Shawinigan had 26 shots on goal but only four players didn’t record a shot… Olivier LeBlanc and Stephen Anderson were each a -2… Maxime Villemaire had seven shots… Jurij Repe returned to the Sea Dogs lineup and recorded an assist… Marvin Cupper was solid.

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV.

OUT OF TOWN

This was the only game in the league on Thursday night.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Moncton Wildcats tonight at 7:30pm.