RECAP: Ouch. Dogs Lose 11-1.

FINAL: Saint John 1, Halifax 11

HALIFAX – Friday night was a bad night for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Going into this series, everyone was aware this could get ugly on the scoreboard. And boy oh boy, did we ever find out quickly that that was true.

The Halifax Mooseheads exploded for eight goals in the second period in an 11-1 stomping of the Sea Dogs in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff action at the Metro Centre on Friday. The Mooseheads lead the best-of-seven first round series 1-0.

Martin Frk had five goals and three assists, Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, and Jonathan Drouin added six helpers. Stefan Fournier, Brent Andrews, Stephen MacAulay, and Dominic Beauchemin also scored. Zach Fucale made 18 saves in the win.

Simply put, Halifax dominated this game. Despite leading just 2-1 after one, they were outshooting Saint John 24-4. Sebastien Auger was the only reason the Dogs stayed in this game at all, but he just could not contain the Mooseheads’ offense after a while. Halifax outshot Saint John 59-19 overall with 11 of those Sea Dogs shots coming in the third.

Auger was pulled after giving up seven goals on 38 shots – and that’s in just 31:10 of action. He did all he could in net. Alex Fournier came in in relief, allowing four goals on 21 shots.

Jason Cameron had the Sea Dogs’ only goal, a goal that came halfway through the first period to make it a 2-1 game at the time.

It's unfortunate Saint John lost like this but... what are you going to do? The Moose are just too good. The Sea Dogs did this to Cape Breton the past two years. 

Maybe things will go better tomorrow.

FIRST PERIOD

The Mooseheads were buzzing early, creating a few chances in the crease area. Sebastien Auger was making saves.

A little later, Jonathan Drouin came down the wing and grabbed the puck. He then passed to Nathan MacKinnon who was streaking down into the slot. MacKinnon let a shot go that was nicely stopped by Auger’s glove.

Following a media timeout, Saint John had a good chance as the disc was centered to Andreas Tsogkas. But Tsogkas couldn’t get a great shot on Zach Fucale.

Ian Saab went to the box at 7:21, sending Halifax to the power play. Then at 8:04, Maxime Villemaire headed to the sin bin for a faceoff violation, sending the Moose to a five-on-three power play. There was an insane sequence during the penalties as Auger made some unreal saves, the Moose were hitting posts – it was just madness.

Saint John couldn't keep the Moose from scoring for long. Nathan MacKinnon finally opened the scoring at 9:27 during a five-on-four stretch of the man advantage. That made it 1-0 Halifax.

MacKinnon made it 2-0 Moose at 12:11. He went around Stephen Anderson and made some dangles before sliding the puck past Auger.

Jason Cameron got the Dogs back in the game as he scored on a backhand shot at 12:48. That made it a 2-1 contest.

The Dogs headed to the power play at as Matt Murphy headed to the box at 13:32. The Dogs couldn’t get a whole lot going and their man advantage was cut short when Matthew Highmore headed to the box at 14:44.

That would do it for the first. Shots were 24-4 in favour of Halifax.

SECOND PERIOD

Ian Saab was given a match penalty for high sticking just 50 seconds in, giving Halifax a five-minute power play. Former Sea Dog Stephen MacAulay made his old teammate pay, finishing off a nice passing play at 1:35 to make it 3-1 Halifax.

Still on the power play, Martin Frk made it 4-1 for the home side at 2:18. A few minutes later, Mackenzie Brown almost had a shorthanded break but Fucale raced out and beat him to the puck. The Moose had a few other chances during the long power play but could not beat Auger.

Back at even strength, Frk ripped his second of the period past Auger at 7:43, making it 5-1 Halifax.

Frk completed his natural hat trick at 10:08, sliding the puck under Auger while falling just above the blue paint. That made it a 6-1 contest.

Brent Andrews made it a 7-1 contest at 11:10, making a great move to get around a Saint John defenseman and then beat Auger top shelf. That would end Auger’s night as Alex Fournier took over.

Halifax headed back to the power play at 13:25 as Stephen Anderson headed off. Stefan Fournier scored some goal at 14:00 on the man advantage, making it an 8-1 game.

Frk scored his fourth of the game at 16:34. 9-1 Halifax.

Domenic Beauchemin rounded out the scoring at 18:01, giving Halifax a 10-1 lead after two. Ouch.

Shots were, once again, 24-4 in favour of Halifax in the frame.

THIRD PERIOD

Frk scored his fifth of the game at 8:12. That made it 11-1 Halifax.

Some other stuff happened in the third. Whatev.

Shots were 11-11 in the final stanza.

Halifax went 4-for-10 on the power play while Saint John went 0-for-5.

NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow on SN.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs and Mooseheads meet again tomorrow night for Game 2.