POSTSCRIPT: Mooseheads 6, Sea Dogs 1

A collection of recaps from last night’s 6-1 Saint John Sea Dogs loss to the Halifax Mooseheads…

Our recap. Saint John and Halifax returned to Harbour Station for Game 4 of their playoff round.

The Telegraph-Journal’s recap (paywall). It’s over for the Saint John Sea Dogs and just beginning for the Halifax Mooseheads.

The Chronicle Herald’s recap. The first round is now out of the way for the Halifax Mooseheads.

Metro Halifax’s recap. The inevitable happened Wednesday night.

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

The Canadian Press’ recap. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will have a new President Cup champion after the Halifax Mooseheads eliminated the Saint John Sea Dogs with a 6-1 victory on Wednesday in post-season action.

SaintJohnSeaDogs.com’s recap. The Saint John Sea Dogs dropped a 6-1 decision as the Halifax Mooseheads swept the first-round playoff series to end Saint John’s 2012-2013 campaign.

HalifaxMooseheads.ca’s recap. The Moose are moving on.

SERIES: It’s over. Halifax swept the first-round, best-of-seven playoff series 4-0.

SCRATCHES: Saint John was without three regular forwards in Oliver Cooper (lower body), Jason Cameron (lower body), and Stephen Anderson (upper body). This forced Jeremy Doucet and Michael Abbott to dress as forwards on the fourth line.

The Mooseheads didn’t have former Sea Dogs forward Stephen MacAulay. He was suspended one game for his hit on Cooper Tuesday night.

FIRST: Halifax led 2-0 after one and outshot Saint John 19-1. It wasn’t pretty – especially the first 10 minutes of the game where absolutely nothing happened.

STICKS: Martin Frk broke two sticks during the same power play in the second period. His first stick break saw part of it fly into the crowd. Guy’s got a cannon. Frk had an assist in the game.

FUCALE: Mooseheads goaltender Zach Fucale only had to make 14 saves for the win last night. He also picked up an assist on Matthew Boudreau’s second period goal. He allowed four goals on 70 shots in this series.

AUGER: Sebastien Auger was peppered with shots once again, allowing six goals on 50 shots. The Sea Dogs’ MVP allowed 21 goals on 179 shots in this series. He did everything he could and was brilliant in Game 2. His 158 saves are the second most made by any goalie in the playoffs this year.

POWER PLAY: Halifax’s power play was clicking again, going 2-for-3. A positive though was that Saint John only gave the Moose three power play opportunities.

VILLEMAIRE: Maxime Villemaire, playing in his final game as a Sea Dog, scored Saint John’s only goal in the third period. It was his second of the series. Playoff and regular season combined, Villemaire had 15 goals and 11 assists in 33 games with the Dogs.

FACEOFFS: Saint John won just 14 of 44 faceoffs last night. Missing Jason Cameron and Stephen Anderson certainly played a role in that.

FINAL GAME: This was the last junior hockey game for Pierre Durepos, Ian Saab, and Maxime Villemaire. The three were named the three stars of this game.

SWEPT: For the first time since the 2010 President’s Cup final the Sea Dogs have been eliminated from the playoffs. It is the third time in team history they have been swept (2008 semi-final vs Rouyn-Noranda and 2009 first-round vs Cape Breton are the others).

BEAT: Halifax outscored Saint John 25-4 in this series sweep.  The Dogs scored one goal in each game. Other than Game 2, this series wasn’t close.

ATTENDANCE: 2,294 at the game last night which was the smallest crowd of the season. Yikes. It really isn’t much of a surprise. In 2009 when the Sea Dogs got swept in the first round by Cape Breton, 2,929 and 2,757 watched Games 3 and 4 at Harbour Station, respectively. Also remember that this is the city that failed to sell out Game 1 of the 2011 President’s Cup final which is still upsetting.

NOTES: The Sea Dogs were the first team eliminated from the QMJHL and CHL playoffs… Ian Saab was given a 10-minute misconduct near the end of the second period… Martin Frk had 10 points in this series. He had 11 in total in last year’s playoffs… Matt Murphy had three hits… Mackenzie Brown had three shots… Saint John out hit Halifax 11-9… first time since 2009 that the Sea Dogs will not appear in the President’s Cup final. Crazy… should be an eventful off-season... is it August yet?

HIGHLIGHTS: Courtesy of SeaDogsTV.

OUT OF TOWN

Blainville-Boisbriand 4 at Acadie-Bathurst 1

Rouyn-Noranda 4 at Drummondville 3 (OT)

Baie-Comeau 5 at Sherbrooke 2

Moncton 0 at Victoriaville 1

Quebec 4 at Chicoutimi 0

Rimouski 0 at Gatineau 4

P.E.I. 0 at Val-d'Or 3

Also, the Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades were swept in the first-round of the WHL playoffs by the Medicine Hat Tigers. They make Shawinigan look good.

NEXT GAME: The pre-season begins whenever.