RECAP: Sea Dogs Lose 5-1

FINAL: Saint John 1, Bathurst 5

BATHURST – Patrik Zdrahal’s second period beauty proved to be the winner as the Acadie-Bathurst Titan defeated the Saint John Sea Dogs 5-1 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season play on Sunday afternoon at the KC Irving Regional Centre.

Zdrahal weaved through the Saint John defense before ripping the puck up and over Sea Dogs goaltender Antoine Landry. That would give Bathurst the lead and they would never lose it again.

Also scoring for Bathurst - who netted five straight goals - was Adam Stevens, Robert Pelletier, Alexandros Soumakis, and Gabriel Gosselin. Lucus Grundy had two assists. Mason McDonald played the entire game in net and made 26 saves for the victory.

Saint John’s lone goal came from Michael Abbott. Sebastien Auger was sharp as usual and stopped all 15 shots he faced. Antoine Landry didn’t have his greatest game of the pre-season but neither did Saint John’s defense. Landry allowed five goals on 20 shots in the second half of the game.

The win improved Bathurst to 2-2-0 this pre-season while Saint John fell to 2-2-0. This was the fourth straight meeting between the two squads.

After a scoreless first period, Abbott opened the scoring at 9:49 of the second. The d-man fired a quick shot top corner blocker side on McDonald to give Saint John a 1-0 lead.

The Titan tied the game at 1-1 with a shorthanded goal at 11:38. Stevens was fed the puck and went in on a breakaway. He made a lovely deke around Landry to tie things up.

Zdrahal then scored at 15:29 to put Bathurst in front 2-1.

It looked like the Sea Dogs had tied the game midway through the third on a power play. But the goal was immediately called off as the officials ruled it went off a skate and in.

At 12:19, Bathurst struck again while shorthanded as Pelletier slapped one by Landry to make it 3-1. Just over a minute later on a power play, a Grundy point shot was put in by Soumakis to give the Titan a 4-1 advantage.

The scoring came to an end at 16:51 as Gosselin grabbed the puck and slid it around Landry to make it a 5-1 final.

Shots were 35-27 in favour of Bathurst in the game.

Saint John went 0-for-6 on the power play while Bathurst went 1-for-5.

NOTES: Mike Kelly and Ross Yates ran the Sea Dogs bench today… the Sea Dogs went 29/66 on faceoffs… Kelly Bent made his Sea Dogs pre-season debut. He was a -3 with two penalty minutes and three hits… David Weckworth played in his first pre-season game of the year… Olivier LeBlanc had six shots… pretty sure one kid was able to get three pucks that flew out of play today… the 50/50 winner took home $940.

*UPDATE: The Titan cut Grant Janes, Miguel Sullivan, and Riley Scott after the game.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Moncton Wildcats in Bouctouche on September 6.