RECAP: Welcome To The Hiccups. Dogs Lose 5-0.

FINAL: Saint John 0, Rimouski 5

RIMOUSKI, Que. – It was a rough night for the Saint John Sea Dogs in Rimouski on Thursday.

The Sea Dogs were only able to get 20 shots on goal in a 5-0 loss to the Oceanic in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action.

Anthony DeLuca had a four-point night which included two goals. Alexis Loiseau, Brent Turnbull, and William Couture each added singles. Philippe Desrosiers made 20 saves for the shutout victory.

The Sea Dogs, who are without the injured Stephen Anderson, just couldn’t get their offense rolling at all. Of their 20 shots, just five of them were considered dangerous by the league. Also, eight of their shots came in the third period when Rimouski already had a sizable lead.

Antoine Landry got a rare start in net and made 35 stops in the loss.

This was the opening game of a three-game road trip for the Dogs. Things don’t get any easier either with Quebec and Blainville-Boisbriand on deck.

FIRST PERIOD

Just 53 seconds in, Alexis Loiseau scored some goal to make it 1-0 Rimouski.

A few minutes later, Loiseau was stopped by Sea Dogs goaltender Antoine Landry while on a two-on-one.

Olivier LeBlanc’s open ice hit on Anthony Chapados at 12:56 resulted in an interference penalty. On the power play, Brent Turnbull scored on a rebound at 14:05 to make it 2-0 Oceanic.

Lukas Walter went to the box at 15:45 for tripping. Rimouski had some good pressure on but didn’t get many shots on goal.

At 18:41, Simon Bourque went to the box to send the Dogs to the power play. They couldn’t get a whole going before the buzzer sounded.

Shots in the first were 13-6 in favour of the Oceanic.

SECOND PERIOD

The Sea Dogs couldn’t get on the board during the power play time that carried over into the second. A little later on at even strength, Landry made a couple of nice stops.

Saint John went back to the man advantage at 5:09 but once again couldn’t get much going.

The Oceanic took a 3-0 lead at 10:01. Jimmy Oligny’s shot was stopped and William Couture grabbed the puck out of the crease area. He found an open net to make it 3-0 for the home side.

The Dogs went to another power play at 10:50 but could not get their offense firing.

At 15:18, Nathan Noel headed off for slashing. Landry made a nice stop off a Loiseau chip shot but could not stop DeLuca at 17:07. DeLuca came hard down the wing and sniped a shot past the Dogs netminder to give Rimouski a 4-0 advantage.

Shots in the second stanza were 10-6 in favour of the Oceanic.

THIRD PERIOD

Landry made a couple of nice saves off Sebastien Sylvestre and Michael Joly early on in the third. A little later, DeLuca sent a shot off the post.

Former Oceanic Nicolas Hebert then had a chance but Desrosiers made the stop and got a quick whistle.

Rimouski went to the power play at 7:15 but could not extend their lead.

After a decent Saint John scoring chance, a Loiseau feed found DeLuca in front of the net. He made a deke and beat Landry to make it a 5-0 game.

Michael Thibault then sent a shot off the post and then Loiseau was nicely stopped by the pad of Landry.

At 18:27, Walter and Oligny finally fought. Walter picked up an instigator.

That would be it. Shots in the third were 17-8 in favour of the Oceanic and 40-20 overall.

Saint John went 0-for-3 on the power play while Rimouski went 2-for-6.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs take on the Remparts on Saturday night in Quebec City.