POSTSCRIPT: Sea Dogs 1, Mooseheads 2

A collection of recaps from last night’s 2-1 Saint John Sea Dogs loss to the Halifax Mooseheads…

Our recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs came oh so close to pulling off a massive upset on Saturday night at the Halifax Metro Centre.

The Chronicle Herald’s recap. The win didn’t come nearly as easily for the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday.

Metro Halifax’s recap. There would be no blowout on this night.

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

The Canadian Press’ recap. Saint John's goaltender Sebastien Auger stopped 43-of-45 shots, but Matthew Boudreau scored the winner on the power play at 12:42 of the third period to give the Mooseheads a 2-0 series lead.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs put up a much tougher fight against the Halifax Mooseheads in Saturday night’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League President Cup playoff action. Halifax took the match with a 2-1 decision and a 2-0 series lead.

SERIES: Halifax now leads the first round, best-of-seven series 2-0.

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without defensemen Ian Saab (suspended) and Steven Duda (healthy) along with forward Brett Malone (healthy).

Saab was suspended an automatic one-game for a high sticking match penalty he received in Game 1 on Friday night.

VILLEMAIRE: Maxime Villemaire had Saint John’s only goal on Saturday, scoring on a scramble at 14:01 in the first period on a power play. It was Villemaire’s first of the series and gave Saint John their first lead of the playoffs.

FIRST: Saturday’s first period certainly looked a lot different than Friday’s. On Friday, the Mooseheads led 2-1 and outshot the Sea Dogs 24-4. But on Saturday, Saint John led 1-0 and were outshot just 10-7.

SPECIAL TEAMS: There were no even strength goals scored in this game. Both teams scored on the power play and Halifax also had a shorthanded marker. Although the Sea Dogs allowed the game winner while down a man, they didn’t get into penalty trouble like they did on Friday. They gave the Moose just four power play opportunities.

On the flip side, the Mooseheads had a difficult time staying out of the box early in the game. That included Jonathan Drouin taking a 10-minute misconduct. The Dogs went 1-for-7 on the power play.

TOP GUNS: The Sea Dogs managed to keep Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, and Martin Frk off the score sheet on Saturday. The trio combined for seven goals and 11 assists on Friday night.

SHOTS: Halifax outshot Saint John 45-15. Dangerous shots were listed as 29-5 in favour of the Moose. It seems weird, but Saint John actually had more shots in Friday’s 11-1 loss than in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat.

AUGER: Sebastien Auger was excellent as usual, rebounding nicely from Friday’s game where he allowed seven goals. He was unreal in this game and gave Saint John a chance to win with his first star performance. If the Dogs are going to have success in this series, Auger is going to have to keep making unlimited saves.

WINNER: Matthew Boudreau scored the game-winner at 12:42 of the third. Heartbreaking stuff.

NOTES: Saint John’s first goal was originally given to Stephen Anderson… two goal reviews in the first period… Telus lost the audio in Game 1. For Game 2, they lost the video for a short period of time in the second period… according to News 88.9, Anderson was not on the Sea Dogs bench in the third period… 50/50 winner took home over $18,000… Jakub Izacky had four shots… Saint John went just 26-for-66 in faceoffs… Jonathan Drouin had eight shots… Halifax out hit Saint John 10-5.

HIGHLIGHTS

John Moore’s post-game video.

OUT OF TOWN

Sherbrooke 1 at Baie-Comeau 8

Gatineau 5 at Rimouski 3

Victoriaville 2 at Moncton 3 (OT)

Val-d'Or 8 at P.E.I. 3

Chicoutimi 1 at Quebec 5

Drummondville 2 at Rouyn-Noranda 3

NEXT GAME: Game 3 of this series is Tuesday night at 7pm in Saint John.

Photo: Mooseheads Twitter