Sunday, February 9, 2014

RECAP: The Armada Are Good. Dogs Lose 5-2

FINAL: Blainville-Boisbriand 5, Saint John 2

SAINT JOHN – The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada are on a roll.

The Armada head home having swept their three-in-three road trip through the Maritimes and have now won seven straight overall. They completed the sweep with a 5-2 win over the Saint John Sea Dogs on Sunday afternoon at Harbour Station.

The Armada jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead. Although the Sea Dogs came close to tying things up, it felt like the visitors had control for most of this game. Saint John could only get 18 shots on goal and only two in the third period.

Samuel Hodhod and Nikita Jevpalovs each had two goals while Nathanael Halbert added a single. Etienne Marcoux had a few adventures in net but made 16 saves for the win.

Sea Dogs goals came courtesy of Thomas Chabot and Oliver Cooper. Sebastien Auger made 35 saves in the loss.

FIRST PERIOD
30 seconds or so into the game, Spencer Smallman had the puck and dangled in front of the crease but was stopped by Etienne Marcoux.

The Armada made it 1-0 at 2:26. Nathanael Halbert’s shot from the point beat Sebastien Auger up high and under the bar to open the scoring.

Blainville-Boisbriand doubled their lead at 6:03. Auger stopped a Marc-Olivier Roy shot from the faceoff dot but Samuel Hodhod put in the rebound to make it 2-0.

Then at 7:17, Auger allowed another rebound and Nikita Jevpalovs put it in to give the visitors a quick 3-0 advantage.

After that, there was a long stretch of back-and-forth play with neither team doing much of anything.

At 11:46, the Sea Dogs headed to the power play. At 12:06, a Thomas Chabot dump in from the neutral zone went off a partition and into the empty Armada net. Marcoux had left his net to play the puck behind the goal but the puck never came to him. Chabot’s first QMJHL goal made it 3-1.

Some four-on-four play created at 12:13 when Ryan Tesink and Alexander McQuaid each picked up unsportsmanlike penalties. During the four-on-four, Daniel Walcott fed Roy who the tipped the puck on net but was stopped by Auger.

Shots in the first were 12-8 Armada.

SECOND PERIOD
The Sea Dogs’ penalty kill was kept busy early in the third. Blainville-Boisbriand had three straight power plays but Saint John produced good kills on all of them.

With Roy in the box at 9:09, Frederic Bergeron tried to shoot the puck into the Bay of Fundy and was called for delay of game at 9:22. On the five-on-three at 10:42, Oliver Cooper had the puck and patiently waited as he made his way to the bottom of the faceoff circle and then beat Marcoux to make it a 3-2 game.

The Armada went back to the man advantage at 12:28 on a questionable hooking call on Jeremy Doucet. At 12:39, a cross crease pass found Jevpalovs who netted his second of the game to make it 4-2.

Some four-on-four play was created at 12:58 but nothing happened. Back at even strength, Matthew Highmore and Cooper had a two-on-one but Highmore’s pass was blocked.

At 19:16, the Armada were awarded yet another power play. Christopher Clapperton then sent a shot off the post.

Shots in the middle frame were 15-8 in favour of the Armada.

THIRD PERIOD
On the power play that carried over, Jevpalovs fired a point shot that was stopped by the glove of Auger.

Saint John went to the power play at 7:54. Highmore created a good scoring chance as he entered the crease but sent the puck wide.

A few minutes later, the Armada had a two-on-none but Auger made a great pad save on Clapperton’s shot.

The visitors made it a 5-2 game at 12:25. Hodhod came down the wing and then got around Alexander McQuaid and cut through the crease. He slid the puck past a sprawled out Auger to complete the beautiful goal.

The Sea Dogs didn’t do much offensively in this period, getting just two shots on net.

At 15:55, Kelly Bent and Matthew Bursey dropped the gloves.

Shots were 8-2 Armada in the third and 40-18 overall.

The Sea Dogs went 2-for-5 on the power play while the Armada went 1-for-7.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Gatineau Olympiques on Wednesday night.

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