RECAP: Sea Dogs Lose 4-1

FINAL: Moncton 4, Saint John 1

SAINT JOHN – The Saint John Sea Dogs dropped their final game of the pre-season on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station.

A three goal third period by the Moncton Wildcats was plenty enough to edge the Sea Dogs 4-1 on the final day of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League exhibition action. The Sea Dogs beat the Wildcats 5-1 this past Friday and will meet again this coming Friday at the Moncton Coliseum as Saint John kicks off their regular season schedule.

Christopher Caissy had two goals while Conor Garland and Christophe Lalonde added singles. Alex Dubeau made 33 saves for the win in net.

Stephen Anderson had Saint John’s only goal. Sebastien Auger played the full 60 minutes in net and allowed four goals on 33 shots.

With the loss, Saint John ends the pre-season with a 3-3 record. The Moncton Wildcats improved to 6-2.

The Sea Dogs opened the scoring at 11:45 of the first as Anderson beat Dubeau. That made it 1-0.

It was a fairly fast moving first with Saint John holding a 17-8 shots advantage thanks to two power play opportunities.

The Wildcats started to get some things rolling in the second. Finally at 19:30, Lalonde tied it with a rebound goal or something.

Shots were 11-9 Wildcats in the second.

Moncton took their first lead of the game at 4:15 of the third as Caissy scored.

Caissy scored his second of the period at 7:04 as he roofed the puck over Auger’s glove and under the bar to give Moncton a 3-1 advantage. The goal came during some four-on-four play.

Garland extended Moncton’s lead to 4-1 with a breakaway goal at 15:24.

With 1:19 left, Lukas Walter and Jacob Sweeney dropped the gloves but the two wrestled and tumbled to the ice before contacting punches were thrown. Walter also picked up a goaltender interference penalty on the play.

That would be all she wrote. Shots in the third were 14-8 Wildcats and 34-33 Saint John overall.

Moncton went 0-for-5 on the power play while Saint John went 0-for-3.

NOTES: Big screen was turned on. Good stuff… nobody sang the national anthem. A recording was played… Christophe Lalonde had seven shots… Stephen Anderson had four shots… Ryan Penny had four hits… Lukas Walter and Oliver Cooper each had three hits… the Sea Dogs have allowed 12 goals against in third periods this pre-season… Thomas Chabot was a +1… pretty decent crowd of 1,917 on hand.... QMJHL regular season begins on Thursday night in Halifax.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs are in Moncton on Friday night at 7pm to open up their 2013-14 regular season.