News & Notes From Season Opener

1st QMJHL goal for @JulTessier17 #CongratsTess pic.twitter.com/MbLs3brKfQ
— DK (@SeaDogsDK) September 12, 2014

Some more stuff from last night’s season opener…

• It was another promising game by the Sea Dogs in terms of shots. Saint John outshot Charlottetown 26-7 through the first two periods and 31-16 overall.
• Jack van Boekel, Daniel Del Paggio, Jurij Siska, Adam Marsh, Julien Tessier, Adam Bateman, Drew Gross, Matthew Green, Alexander Kealey, Jakub Zboril, and Luke Green all made their QMJHL debuts with the Dogs.
• Bateman and Tessier both scored their first QMJHL goals. Bateman had only one goal in 43 OHL games with the Windsor Spitfires last season.
• Imports Siska and Zboril each picked up assists in the game for their first QMJHL points. Zboril made a great pass to Tessier for a goal late in the second period.
• Saint John’s penalty kill had a busy night, killing off all eight Charlottetown power plays. That includes a Nathan Noel penalty that carried over into overtime.
• All teams have CCM logos on their jerseys this season.
• Saint John has large 10^th anniversary logos on the left shoulder of their jerseys.
• Zboril nearly put the puck into his own net in the third period as he fired a loose puck into the end boards.
• In a pre-game interview on NewSong FM, GM Darrell Young said he was surprised/impressed with van Boekel, Marsh, and Spencer Smallman at training camp.
• Also in that pre-game interview, it sounds like Young wants to replace Taylor Fielding with a centre.
• Daniel Sprong probably played 80 minutes in this game.
• Oliver Cooper had a fairly quiet night, recording one shot, one hit, and two penalty minutes. Meanwhile, Will Thompson had two shots and one hit.
• QMJHL Live had some issues in the first period but were fixed a few minutes in. The quality is unreal. The webcasts will remain free until the end of the month.
• 96.1 NewSong FM also had a smooth ride in their first regular season broadcast. It’s exactly the same format as News 88.9’s broadcasts with much more Sea Dogs related commercials.

NOTES: The Eastlink Centre has a new scoreboard… only four Sea Dogs didn’t record a shot… Jakub Zboril had five shots… Bailey Webster had four hits… Nathan Noel went 15-for-21 in the faceoff circle… Daniel Sprong had three shots for the Islanders… this was the third straight meeting between the two.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs are in Moncton on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. to battle the Wildcats.