SAINT JOHN – Fortunately for the Saint John Sea Dogs, the
Acadie-Bathurst Titan have the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s worst power
play.
The Sea Dogs gave the Titan seven power play
opportunities but only allowed one goal in a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at
Harbour Station.
In a game that started a half hour late due to a power outage, Saint John had a 2-0 lead after one. But the Titan turned
it on a bit in the second and carried that over into the third. The Sea Dogs
gave Bathurst plenty of man advantages – some of which were questionable - to
get back into the game but, led by the goaltending of Sebastien Auger, were
able to hang on.
Auger made 39 saves in the win. Not to take anything away
from the Saint John netminder’s performance, but the Titan didn’t have a ton of
quality scoring chances in this game despite recording 40 shots.
Stephen Anderson and Matthew Highmore scored for the
Dogs. Highmore also had an assist. Anderson meanwhile left the game in the
second period after taking a huge hit from Anthony Gingras.
Raphael Lafontaine scored the Titan’s only goal. Jacob
Brennan made 27 stops in the loss.
Noah Zilbert had the first good chance of the game as he
cut in front of the goal after a faceoff. Jacob Brennan made a nice poke check
to stop the scoring chance. A few minutes later, Nicolas Dumulong put a big hit
on Kelly Bent.
Stephen Anderson opened the scoring at 7:27. Anderson
went in alone and made a lovely deke to his backhand, beating Brennan up high
to make it 1-0 Saint John.
Bathurst’s league worst power play went to work at 8:29
but didn’t do much.
Mark Trickett took a tripping penalty at 13:48 and then
Jake Primeau joined him in the box at 14:00 to give the Dogs a long
five-on-three advantage. At 15:08, Olivier LeBlanc fired a pass from the point
to Matthew Highmore who was parked near the dot. Highmore one timed the puck
past Brennan to give Saint John a 2-0 lead.
Marcus Cuomo and Dumulong dropped the gloves at 19:38 for
what could be classified as a “spirited tilt.”
Shots in a solid opening period for Saint John were 11-7
in favour of the Sea Dogs.
SECOND PERIOD
Not a whole lot happened in the first half of the second
period.
At 8:52, Oliver Cooper went off for rouging. Then at
10:36, LeBlanc headed off for tripping. But the Sea Dogs produced a
couple of good kills and didn’t allow the Titan to get too many shots on net.
At 18:44, Anthony Gingras leveled Anderson with an open
ice hit near the blue line. Cooper came to Anderson’s defense and fought
Gingras with Cooper picking up the extra penalty. Anderson was helped off the
ice by Sea Dogs athletic therapist JP Laciak and did not return.
Shots in the second stanza were 14-10 in favour of the
Titan.
THIRD PERIOD
The Sea Dogs killed off the Cooper penalty that carried
over into the third and then killed off an Alexander McQuaid tripping penalty
as well.
Highmore had a great chance to make it 3-0 Dogs as
Mathieu Joseph set him up with a nice pass but he fired wide of the net.
As bizarre sequence at 8:03 resulted in another Titan
power play, despite there appearing to be goaltender interference by Bathurst
on Auger. On that man advantage, Raphael Lafontaine scored at 9:22 to make it a
2-1 game.
Saint John then went to the power play at 10:26 but
couldn’t get much going. The Titan went to yet another power play at 14:42 but
could not tie things up. Cuomo had a great shorthanded opportunity during the
sequence, though.
Bathurst pulled Brennan in the final minute but were unable get much setup. That would be all she wrote as the Dogs skated away with a 2-1
win.
Shots were 19-8 in favour of Bathurst in the third and
40-29 overall.
Saint John went 1-for-3 on the power play while Bathurst
went 1-for-7.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs hit the road and take on the
Rimouski Oceanic on Thursday night.
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