RECAP: Wednesday Night Winning. Dogs Win 4-3.

FINAL: Saint John 4, Moncton 3

MONCTON – Noah Zilbert is heating up at the right time for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Zilbert scored two goals on Wednesday night in Moncton, leading the Sea Dogs to a 4-3 victory over the Moncton Wildcats. The Fredericton native now has four goals in his last three games with Stephen Anderson and his offense out of the lineup indefinitely.

Zilbert’s goals tied a back-and-forth game against the Wildcats twice. Will Thompson and Jurij Repe had the other markers. Antoine Landry got the start in goal and made 12 saves before leaving the game with an apparent lower body injury in the second period. Sebastien Auger made 30 saves in relief.

Conor Garland had all three goals for the Wildcats. Alex Dubeau allowed four goals on 21 shots in the loss.

It was another solid road game by the Sea Dogs much like their performances in Quebec City and Blainville-Boisbriand over the weekend. Despite Moncton doubling Saint John in shots, it certainly wasn’t that lopsided.

Garland opened the scoring at 5:12 of the first on a power play. But the Dogs tied things up just a little over a minute later at 6:15 as Zilbert scored his first of the contest.

At 9:30, some rough stuff near the sideboards resulted in Samuel Dove-McFalls fighting Kyle Haas while Jeremy Doucet fought Matthew Klebanskyj. Kelly Bent also got a game misconduct for being the third man in. The chaos resulted in a bizarre delay that lasted unlimited minutes as the officials tried to figure out the penalties.

The delay seemed to deflate the Wildcats a bit. At 18:41, Thompson scored his third of the year to give Saint John a 2-1 advantage. Shots in the opening frame were just 8-3 in favour of the Dogs.

At 14:19 of the second, Garland tied things at 2-2. Then at 19:18, Garland completed his hat trick with a beautiful goal to give Moncton a 3-2 advantage heading into the third. Shots were 15-5 ‘Cats in the period.

Zilbert’s second of the game at 6:15 of the third tied things up at 3-3. Then on a power play at 8:06, Repe’s point shot beat Dubeau to give Saint John a 4-3 lead.

Then the Auger show started. In the period, Moncton out shot Saint John 27-8 which is basically enough shots for a game. Alexander McQuaid took a double-minor for high sticking with 3:39 to play which created some nervous moments. But Auger was Auger and kept the Dogs in front.

Shots overall were 45-21 in favour of Moncton in the game.

Saint John went 1-for-4 on the power play while Moncton went 1-for-5.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday night at Harbour Station.