RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 6-3

FINAL: Cape Breton 3, Saint John 6

SAINT JOHN – The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles’ road woes continued on New Year’s Eve at Harbour Station.

The Screaming Eagles fell 6-3 to the Saint John Sea Dogs in an afternoon tilt, dropping their 15^th consecutive road match. The Eagles certainly had their chances though, outshooting the Sea Dogs 29-21 overall and 14-4 in the second period alone.

Saint John was quite opportunistic with their chances, scoring on three of six shots in the first period. They were able to take advantage of a few defensive miscues by Cape Breton and took the game over in the final half of the third period.

Adam Marsh had two goals for the Sea Dogs while singles came from Nathan Noel, Mathieu Joseph, Spencer Smallman and Matthew Highmore. Sebastien Auger made 26 saves in the win.

Jason Bell, Kyle Farrell and Evgeny Svechnikov scored for the Eagles. Francois Brassard made 15 saves in the loss.

Noel opened the scoring 4:00 into the game as he sped down the wing past the Cape Breton defense and beat Brassard five-hole.

Saint John made it 2-0 at 7:34. Samuel Dove-McFalls' initial shot hit the post hard but the rebound found Joseph. The Dogs forward fired the puck past Brassard to double the Sea Dogs’ lead.

Mitchell Dempsey went to the box for checking from behind at 14:12. On the man advantage, Cape Breton committed a brutal turnover as a pass found an open Highmore on the wing. He fed the puck to a wide open Smallman in front of the net who beat Brassard with a move to his backhand to give the Dogs a 3-0 lead.

Despite trailing 3-0, the Screaming Eagles were able to outshoot the Sea Dogs 10-6 in the first period.

The tides began to turn in the second frame. With Jakub Zboril and Jack vanBoekel both in the box, Bell fired a bullet past Auger to make it a 3-1 contest at 2:13. Less than two minutes later, Farell tipped another hard shot from Bell past Auger to quickly get Cape Breton within a goal.

Saint John stole some momentum back at 8:55 when Highmore fired a wrist shot past the glove of Brassard, giving the home side a 4-2 advantage. But just 30 seconds later, Svechnikov scored to get Cape Breton back within one.

Cape Breton was awarded a lengthy five-on-three power play later on in the period but Saint John produced a solid penalty kill and held a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes. Shots in the second stanza were 14-4 in favour of the Eagles.

The opening minutes of the third were fairly uneventful. Things changed later on though when Marsh scored a huge goal at 12:32. Luke Green fired the puck from the blue line and Marsh redirected the puck past Brassard making, it 5-3. Just under three minutes later, Joseph centered the puck to Marsh who fired it in to make it a 6-3 final.

Shots were 11-5 in favour of Saint John in the third and 29-21 Cape Breton overall.

Sea Dogs Ranked 9th In CHL

The Saint John Sea Dogs will enter 2015 ranked ninth in the Canadian Hockey League.

The Sea Dogs slid to ninth after being ranked eighth in the previous edition of the BMO CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Sea Dogs lost 6-5 in Moncton on Sunday and then rebounded with a 5-1 win in Bathurst on Monday.

Other QMJHL teams in this week’s top 10 were the Rimouski Oceanic, ranked fifth, and the Moncton Wildcats, ranked ninth.

Here are the rankings for week 14:

This week, the Sea Dogs host the Halifax Mooseheads on Saturday and travel to Charlottetown on Sunday. Those games are in addition to today's New Year's Eve contest against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

GAME DAY 37: vs Screaming Eagles

A preview of today’s game between the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Saint John Sea Dogs…

When and where: Today at 2 p.m., Harbour Station

TV/Radio/Webcast: None/96.1 NewSong FM/QMJHL Live

Records: The Screaming Eagles are fifth in the Maritimes Division and 17^th overall with a record of 12-19-2-3 for 29 points. The Sea Dogs are second in the Maritimes Division, fifth overall and ranked eighth in the CHL Top 10 rankings with a 21-10-1-4 record for 47 points.

Last games: The Screaming Eagles are coming off a 6-3 loss in Charlottetown last night. Evgeny Svechnikov, Maxim Lazarev and Marcus Hinds scored for Cape Breton while Miguel Sullivan made 32 saves in the loss. The Sea Dogs are coming off a 5-1 win in Bathurst on Monday night. Mitchell Dempsey, Justice Dundas, Matthew Green, Spencer Smallman and Braydon Blight all scored for Saint John while Sebastien Auger made 27 stops in the win.

2014-15 head-to-head: The Sea Dogs are 3-1-0-0 against the Screaming Eagles this season while Cape Breton is 1-2-0-1 against Saint John.

Last meeting: Nov. 1 at Harbour Station when the Sea Dogs edged the Screaming Eagles 5-4 in a shootout. Adam Marsh had two goals while Matthew Highmore and Jakub Zboril scored solo markers for Saint John. Loik Leveille, Phelix Martineau, Clark Bishop and Jeremie Beaudin scored for Cape Breton. Bobby Dugan made 36 saves in the win while Francois Brassard made 48 in the loss.

Ex-Sea Dogs on the Screaming Eagles: None

Random stat: Cape Breton has lost 14 straight road games. Their last road win was on Oct. 8.

Big Crowd Expected For NYE Game

The Sea Dogs could have their biggest home crowd of the season watching them tomorrow afternoon.

Tickets are listed as “limited” for the 2p.m. New Year’s Eve showdown between the Sea Dogs and Cape Breton Screaming Eagles at Harbour Station.

Saint John is averaging 3,135 fans per game after 17 home games this season, good for fifth in the QMJHL. It’s no doubt a disappointing number given Saint John’s on ice performance, but it is slightly up from the halfway mark of last season.

Here is Saint John’s average attendance at the holiday break over the past five seasons. Note that the number of games played is slightly different each season.

Season	Avg. At Half	Avg. Year End
2010-11	3,852 (4th)	4,478 (4th)
2011-12	3,950 (3rd)	4,561 (3rd)
2012-13	3,639 (4th)	3,992 (4th)
2013-14	3,029 (5th)	3,423 (5th)
2014-15	3,135 (5th)	TBD

The biggest crowd to attend a Sea Dogs home game this year was on Sept. 19 against Bathurst – the team’s home opener - with an announced attendance of 4,609.

UPDATE:

1000 tickets left for @SeaDogsHockey 2pm game vs. @CBSEHockey stop by or call @harbourstation at 657-1234 to get tickets #NYE2015 #godogsgo
— Shanna Aker (@shannabanana8) December 31, 2014

RECAP: Sea Dogs Win 5-1

FINAL: Saint John 5, Bathurst 1

BATHURST – The losing skid is over.

The Saint John Sea Dogs (21-10-1-4) ended a four-game losing streak on Monday night at KC Irving Regional Centre by defeating the Acadie-Bathurst Titan (10-24-4-1) 5-1.

Mitchell Dempsey, Justice Dundas, Matthew Green, Spencer Smallman and Braydon Blight scored for Saint John in the victory while Sebastien Auger made 27 saves in the win.

Jordan Maher’s power play goal late in the first period was all the Titan could register on this night. Backup netminder Alexandre Lagace made 25 stops in the loss.

It was a fairly uneventful first period until Dempsey opened the scoring at 11:00, finishing off a give-and-go with Dundas by beating Lagace upstairs.

Dundas made it 2-0 Sea Dogs just three minutes later, beating Lagace glove side and giving the overage forward his second point of the period.

Dundas’ eventful period continued at 17:18 when he was called for slashing, sending the Titan to the power play. Bathurst would get on the board during the man advantage at 18:51 as Aaron Kerr sent a nice pass to Maher who beat Auger to make it a 2-1 contest.

Shots were 11-7 in favour of Bathurst in the first period.

Like the first, there wasn’t a whole lot going on in the early goings of the second period. Matthew Green changed that at 8:42, depositing a Julien Tessier rebound past Lagace for his first QMJHL goal. That made it a 3-1 Saint John lead.

Soon after Auger made a big save off a Raphael Corriveau shot, the Titan headed back to the power play at 16:37. On the man advantage, it would be Saint John scoring. After the Titan took too long to set up for a faceoff, Matthew Highmore took the puck after it was dropped and fed Smallman for a breakaway. Smallman made no mistake to give Saint John a 4-1 advantage.

Shots in the second stanza were 11-10 in favour of Bathurst.

In the third, Blight gave the Sea Dogs a 5-1 lead at 4:27. It was his first QMJHL goal.

The rest of the third period was whatev. Shots were 13-6 in favour of Saint John in the third and 30-28 Sea Dogs overall.

Gatineau Trades Zilbert To Moncton

Former Sea Dogs forward Noah Zilbert will be seeing Saint John much more often.

The Gatineau Olympiques announced this morning via Twitter that they have traded Zilbert to the Moncton Wildcats in exchange for Marc-Olivier Duquette and a 2015 eighth-round draft pick.

Zilbert has only played in 10 games this season with the Olympiques, registering one assist. He appeared in his first game since Oct. 24 yesterday in Gatineau’s 4-2 loss to Drummondville.

The Fredericton native was a fourth-round draft pick of Saint John in the 2012 QMJHL Entry Draft. In two seasons with the Dogs he recorded 24 goals and 17 assists in 132 games. He was traded to Gatineau for a 2015 fourth-round draft pick at May’s draft.

Zilbert heads to a Moncton team that currently sits second overall in the QMJHL standings and have the league’s best winning percentage. The Wildcats and Sea Dogs next meet on Jan. 8 in Moncton.

The QMJHL’s holiday trading period ends of Jan. 6. The Sea Dogs have made just one move, trading prospect Louis-Philip Fortin to Shawinigan for a couple draft picks.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation

GAME DAY 36: at Bathurst

A preview of tonight’s game between the Saint John Sea Dogs and Acadie-Bathurst Titan…

When and where: Tonight at 7:30 p.m., KC Irving Regional Centre

TV/Radio/Webcast: None/96.1 NewSong FM/QMJHL Live

Records: The Sea Dogs are second in the Maritimes Division, fifth overall in the QMJHL and ranked eighth in the CHL Top 10 rankings with a record 20-10-1-4 for 45 points. The Titan are sixth in the Maritimes and 18^th overall with a 10-23-4-1 record for 25 points.

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 6-5 loss in Moncton yesterday. Luke Green had two goals while singles came from Mark Tremaine, Spencer Smallman and Juraj Siska. Sebastien Auger made 26 saves in the loss. The Titan are coming off a 4-1 loss in Charlottetown yesterday. Aaron Kerr scored Bathurst’s lone goal while Jacob Brennan and Alexandre Lagace combined to make 31 saves.

2014-15 head-to-head: The Sea Dogs are 2-1-0-1 against the Titan this season while Bathurst is 2-2-0-0 against Saint John.

Last meeting: Dec. 18 at Harbour Station when the Titan edged the Sea Dogs 4-3. Andrew Ryan, Jeffrey Truchon-Viel, Yan Plourde and Egor Popov scored for the Titan while Julien Tessier, Daniel Del Paggio and Luke Green scored for the Dogs. Alexandre Lagace and Jacob Brennan combined to make 22 saves in the win while Sebastien Auger made 20 in the loss.

Ex-Sea Dogs on the Titan: None

Random stat: Adam Marsh, who has led Saint John in scoring for much of the season, has not registered a point since Dec. 7, a stretch of five games.

VIDEO: Sea Dogs/Wildcats Highlights

RECAP: Sea Dogs Lose 6-5

FINAL: Saint John 5, Moncton 6

Lorne Webster | SN Staff

MONCTON - Following a ten day break for Christmas, the Saint John Sea Dogs (20-10-1-4) travelled to Moncton Sunday afternoon to face the rival Wildcats (23-10-0-2).

The Wildcats’ power play proved to be the difference in an entertaining 6-5 win for Moncton. The victory extended Moncton's win streak to six games and increased their lead atop the Maritimes Division to three points over Saint John.

After losing their final three games prior to Christmas, it was hoped that the break would help the young Sea Dogs as they prepare for a hectic second half schedule. Unfortunately, the Sea Dogs woes continued with their fourth consecutive loss. Hopefully the Sea Dogs can get back on the right track starting tomorrow in Bathurst.  

Jacob Sweeney, with two, Zack MacEwen, Cameron Askew, Alexandre Jacob and Zach Malatesta scored for Moncton while Luke Green, with two, Mark Tremaine, Spencer Smallman and Juraj Siska replied for Saint John.

The Sea Dogs failed to capitalize on an early two-man advantage. However, on a power play at 9:40, Luke Green picked up the puck at the point, broke down the left wing and started to go behind the net but instead roofed the puck over Alex Dubeau's short-side shoulder to open the scoring.

Just over a minute later, with Sam Dove-McFalls out of the play after a huge hit from Malatesta, MacEwen’s second chance off a scramble found its way past Sebastien Auger to tie the score at 1-1. Ross Yates was upset with referee Mario Maillet for allowing play to continue with an injured Sea Dog down. Yates was even less impressed when the Sea Dogs were called for three penalties in under two minutes, including a major/match to Jacob Zboril for supposedly kicking a Wildcat.

At 14:16, during the ensuing power plays, Sweeney's shot off the crossbar appeared to stay out. But a video review nearly two minutes later showed that the puck had landed just behind the goal line and the Wildcats were ruled to be up 2-1. At 18:38, with 10 seconds left in Zboril's penalty, Sweeney took a short pass from Askew in the slot and rifled the puck past Auger to extend Moncton's lead to 3-1. Shots on goal favoured Moncton 19-11 in the first.

At 7:07 of a wild second period, former Wildcat Tremaine tipped Thomas Chabot's point shot past Dudeau to make the score 3-2. Less than three minutes later, the QMJHL's top rated power play connected for their third goal on their sixth try, when Askew's rocket from the wing eluded Auger to restore Moncton's two goal lead at 9:53. At 12:47, on a delayed penalty call, Green took a nice drop pass from Nathan Noel and wired a wrist shot past Dubeau to cut the lead to 4-3. At 15:48, Askew created a neutral zone turnover, then on a two on one break sent a beautiful cross ice pass to a streaking Jacob who tipped the puck past Auger to extend Moncton's lead to 5-3. At 17:57, Smallman picked up a rebound of a Julien Tessier shot, went around the net and stuffed the puck into the Wildcats' cage to make the score 5-4. Saint John out shot Moncton 17-7 in the second stanza.  

At 11:53 of a tight checking third period, Malatesta's point shot deflected off a Sea Dog in front of Auger and into the top corner to restore another two-goal lead. But just 28 seconds later, Mitch Dempsey collected the puck on the left wing, skated towards the slot and sent a short pass to Siska who one-timed the puck past Dubeau to cut the lead to 6-5. The Sea Dogs simply could not get another puck past Dubeau after Siska's tally. Saint John once again out shot Moncton 15-6 in the third to end the game up 43-32 on the shot clock.

GAME DAY 35: at Moncton

A preview of today’s game between the Saint John Sea Dogs and Moncton Wildcats…

When and where: Today at 4 p.m., Moncton Coliseum

TV/Radio/Webcast: None/96.1 NewSong FM/QMJHL Live

Records: The Sea Dogs are second in the Maritimes Division, fourth overall in the QMJHL and ranked eighth in the CHL Top 10 rankings with a 20-9-1-4 record for 45 points. The Wildcats are first in the Maritimes, second overall and ninth in the Top 10 with a 22-10-0-2 record for 46 points.

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at Harbour Station on Dec. 18. Julien Tessier, Daniel Del Paggio and Luke Green scored for the Sea Dogs while Sebastien Auger made 20 saves in the loss. The Wildcats are coming off a 10-5 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on Dec. 18 at the Coliseum. Conor Garland, Alexandre Jacob and Kyle Tibbo all scored twice for Moncton while singles came from Adam Holwell, Jacob Sweeney, Will Bower and Eric Leger. Alex Dubeau made 19 stops in the victory.

2014-15 head-to-head: The Sea Dogs are 1-2-0-0 against the Wildcats this season while Moncton is 2-1-0-0 against Saint John.

Last meeting: Oct. 18 at Harbour Station when the Sea Dogs defeated the Wildcats 7-1. Nathan Noel had two goals while Saint John solo markers came from Luke Green, Mitchell Dempsey, Spencer Smallman, Adam Marsh and Mathieu Joseph. Vladimir Tkachev had Moncton’s lone goal. Sebastien Auger made 27 saves in the win while Alex Dubeau made 25 in the loss.

Ex-Sea Dogs on the Wildcats: None

Random stat: Moncton has scored seven shorthanded goals, the second most of any team in the league this season. Rimouski has scored 10.

Sea Dogs Return To Action Tomorrow

Remember the Saint John Sea Dogs?

It’s been some time since we’ve seen the team play thanks to the QMJHL’s holiday break. But the Dogs return to action tomorrow afternoon with a visit to Moncton to battle the Wildcats.

For those who don’t remember the Sea Dogs, they are having a surprisingly good season. They sit second in the Maritimes Division and fourth overall in the league with a 20-9-1-4 record for 45 points. However, they entered the break on a three-game losing streak and are just 5-4-0-1 in their past 10 games.

The Sea Dogs sit one-point back of the Wildcats for first in the division. Tomorrow’s 4 p.m. matchup will be the fourth meeting of the season between the two this year. Moncton has won two of the three previous games.

Following tomorrow’s contest, the Sea Dogs will prepare for an extremely rare Monday night game in Bathurst. That game begins at 7:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, Saint John will host the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles at 2 p.m. at Harbour Station. Tickets to that game are listed as “good” on the Harbour Station website.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation

Slovakia Cuts Siska

There will not be any Saint John Sea Dogs participating in the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championship.

With defenseman Jakub Zboril already cut by the Czech Republic, Slovakian forward Juraj Siska was Saint John’s last hope. Unfortunately for Siska, he was one of the team’s last cuts.

Final cuts of Slovakia U20 team – Forward Juraj Siska and defenseman Patrik Maier. #2015WJC
— Jakub Homoľa (@Jakub_Homola) December 24, 2014

It would have been a nice story if Siska had made the team after missing all of last season while recovery from a back/neck injury.

In his first CHL season, Siska has three goals and six assists in 31 games. He has just one point – an assist – since Oct. 30. He has not scored since Oct. 26.

The world juniors begin on Boxing Day in Montreal and Toronto.