Sea Dogs To Play Drakkar In First Round

The Saint John Sea Dogs and Baie-Comeau Drakkar will renew their feisty rivalry in the first round of this year’s playoffs.

With today’s action complete and only one game remaining in the QMJHL’s regular season, it has been confirmed that the Sea Dogs will open up the playoffs against the Drakkar.

The schedule for the best of seven, 2-3-3 style series has not been released. The first two games will be in Baie-Comeau and the series will likely start on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

Saint John finished 10^th overall in the league standings with a 32-26-4-6 record for 74 points. Baie-Comeau finished seventh with a record of 35-25-5-3 for 78 points.

With only four points separating the two, this could be a great series. The opening round of the QMJHL playoffs are usually brutal in terms of entertainment, but with so many teams tightly packed in the middle of the standings, this year’s post-season could be one of the best in recent memory.

The Sea Dogs and Drakkar met in the second round of the 2012 playoffs and saw Saint John win the series in four games. The two have had quite a few battles over the years with games featuring plenty of fights, power outages and seafood thrown on the ice.

The two teams split the regular season series this year. Saint John won 6-2 at Harbour Station on Oct. 25 while Baie-Comeau won 3-1 on Nov. 15 at the Henry Leonard Centre.

Also of note, Bokondji Imama, who the Sea Dogs acquired from the Drakkar during the holiday trading period, will have the opportunity to play his old team.

Photo: Marc Henwood/Station Nation