Sea Dogs Notebook

FULLERTON

With his CIS career now over at UNB, former Sea Dogs goaltender Travis Fullerton has made the jump to the pro ranks.

Fullerton signed an amateur tryout agreement with the East Coast Hockey League’s San Francisco Bulls earlier this week. He made his pro debut on Wednesday, making 25 stops in a 1-0 overtime loss to the Idaho Steelheads.

The Bulls, whose assistant coach is former Sea Dogs forward Kyle Paige, are the ECHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks.

According to UNBHockeyFans.com, Fullerton “finished his UNB career with a regular season record of 60-11-2 to go along with a school record 14 shutouts, a save percentage of 0.911, and a goals against average of 1.87.”

HF RANKINGS

Jonathan Huberdeau came in at No. 3 in Hockey’s Future’s spring edition of the Top 50 NHL Prospects.

“Whatever questions remained regarding Huberdeau's ability to generate the same offense in the NHL as he had in the QMJHL have been answered, and then some,” they write. “Huberdeau scores with aplomb and consistency for an injury-depleted Florida team that struggles to generate offense.”

Huberdeau was the only Sea Dog to crack the top 10 but three other former Saint John players made the top 50.

Nathan Beaulieu, called up to the Montreal Canadiens today, was ranked 24^th, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Simon Despres was 25^th, and Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle came in at No. 36.

LOOKING AHEAD

Sea Dogs president Wayne Long spoke to News 88.9 on Thursday, looking ahead to next season.

“We’re doing a lot of looking and scouting and we should pick ninth overall in the European draft and have two first round picks this year (in the summer draft),” says Long. “We’re quickly going to bring in some new, young and exciting talent to add to what we think is a great young core of players that we have now.”

An eventful off-season is ahead.

SARNIA

Former Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Jacques Beaulieu saw his team’s season come to an end this week.

Beaulieu’s Sarnia Sting were eliminated in the first-round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs by the Plymouth Whalers. Much like Saint John this year, Sarnia got blown out in most games and were outscored 24-8 by Plymouth.

In the regular season, the Sting finished seventh in the OHL’s Western Conference with a 35-28-1-4 record. They lost Alex Galchenyuk to the NHL mid-season which had to suck.

MONTAGE

News 88.9 aired their annual Sea Dogs montage following Wednesday’s post-game show. You can check that out over at News 88.9’s Sea Dogs blog.

REFS

The Chronicle Herald’s Chris Cochrane wrote a column on everyone’s favourite subject this week – the QMJHL’s referees.

AUS

From the AUS website:

Canadian Interuniversity Sport and Atlantic University Sport announced Wednesday that the coaching staff of the Canadian men's hockey team, led by head coach Gardiner MacDougall, will host an evaluation camp March 29-31 in Fredericton to help identify the 22 student-athletes who will represent the country in December at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy.

At the biennial multi-sport event, which will run from December 11-21, Canada will be represented in men's hockey by a team comprised entirely of players from the AUS conference. Since 1997, selections from each of three CIS leagues have sported the Maple Leaf jersey on a rotating basis.

This weekend's three-day evaluation camp will serve as the first step in selecting the 22-man roster that will travel to Italy. Standouts from all eight AUS teams have been invited, including five goalies, 14 defencemen and 25 forwards.

Two former Sea Dogs forwards will take part in the camp:

Jordan Knox, UPEI (4th - Skinners Pond, P.E.I.)

Michael Kirkpatrick, StFX (2nd - North Sydney, N.S.)

Photo: Bulls Facebook page