RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 4-3

FINAL: Bathurst 3, Saint John 4 (SO)

SAINT JOHN – It was quite a day of hockey at Harbour Station.

In the afternoon, the Saint John Sea Dogs Alumni lost 7-6 in a shootout to the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds Alumni in the Inaugural Wallace McCain Memorial Alumni Game. In the second part of the rare Sea Dogs hockey doubleheader at the Station, Saint John defeated the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 4-3 in a shootout in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season play.

Connor Donaghey, Saint John’s fifth shooter, was the only player who could score in the breakaway contest as he beat Titan goaltender Miguel Sullivan. Antoine Landry continued his stellar play by stopping all five Bathurst shooters.

Thomas Chabot, Bailey Webster, and Mathieu Joseph scored in regulation time for the Sea Dogs. Sebastien Auger got his first start of the pre-season and made 25 saves in 31 minutes of action. Landry made 19 stops in the second half of the game.

Bathurst had goals from Alexandre Gosselin, Joel Blanchard, and Guillaume Brisebois. Sullivan made 26 saves in the loss.

This was the third straight pre-season game between the two and was the most heated. There were no fights but there was quite a bit of rough stuff.

Saint John is now 2-1 in exhibition action while Bathurst fell to 1-2.

Gosselin opened the scoring on the power play at 15:56 of the first period. The Titan caught Saint John on a bad line change, allowing Gosselin to fire a hard shot over the shoulder of Auger. That made it 1-0 for the visitors.

Despite a few power plays in the first for both sides, there would be just one goal in the period. Shots were 14-13 in favour of Saint John.

Saint John tied things up at 5:40 of the second. Just after a Bathurst power play ended, a low point shot by Chabot got past Sullivan in the Titan net to tie things at 1-1.

The Sea Dogs took a 2-1 advantage at 8:18 as Webster scored.

At 8:51, Bathurst had a two man advantage after Steven Duda took a four-minute spearing penalty and joined Spencer Smallman in the box. The Dogs would kill off the penalties though.

Shots in the second were 18-7 in favour of the Titan.

In the third, Joseph put the Sea Dogs up 3-1 with a low shot that snuck through Sullivan at 6:19.

The Titan got back in the game at 10:40. A rebound at the top of crease was roofed over Landry by Blanchard to put Bathurst behind by a single goal. They tied the match up at 13:43 with a bizarre goal by Brisebois.

Shots in the third were 16-8 Bathurst.

The game went straight to a shootout because overtime is for legit games only, you guys. Landry stopped all five shots he faced. After Sullivan stopped Nathan Noel, Stephen Anderson, Joseph, and Smallman, he could not stop Donaghey. That proved to be the winner.

The Titan outshot the Sea Dogs 47-29 overall.

Bathurst went 1-for-7 on the power play while Saint John went 0-for-6.

NOTES: Will Thompson made his pre-season debut. He had two hits… Mike Kelly watched the game from the stands and sat with Gerard Gallant… Jonathan Huberdeau, in town for alumni weekend festivities, acted as an assistant coach… things were rougher in this game than last weekend’s… Thomas Chabot looks real solid out there… good game by Mathieu Joseph… he’s had plenty of chances, but Nathan Noel still doesn’t have a point this pre-season… how about that Auger/Landry combo… $980 to the 50/50 winner.

Im at 4 sticks already and its only pre season #herewego
— Miguel Sullivan (@SullivanMiguel) August 25, 2013

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Bathurst to face the Titan tomorrow afternoon at 3pm.