Despite allowing three goals on the first four shots they allowed, the Sea Dogs overcame that early first period deficit to defeat the Gatineau Olympiques 8-4 at the Robert Guertin Centre. This was Saint John's first game since Jeff Cowan was named the team's interim head coach - and it was good to see the Dogs fight through some adversity and collect a deserved victory.
Despite going down 2-0 early, the game never really felt out of reach for the Sea Dogs. Saint John battled back to tie it up at 3-3 heading into the first intermission and then dominated the second, scoring four times and outshooting the Olympiques 11-6, to take a commanding 7-3 lead.
Goaltender Noah Patenaude, coming off his best performance in the QMJHL on Sunday, never looked very comfortable in net. Fortunately his offense backed him up with eight different players scoring in the win.
Josh Lawrence, Dawson Stairs, Nicolas Guay, Jeremie Poirier, Kale McCallum, Alex Drover, Matt Gould and Maxim Cajkovic scored for Saint John. Patenaude made 22 saves in the win.
Gatineau goals came from Kieran Craig, William Dagenais, Pier-Olivier Roy and Charles-Antoine Roy. Remi Poirier was pulled after allowing four goals on 17 shots. Creed Jones allowed three goals on 15 shots in the final half of the game.
Gatineau has now lost seven straight games.
LINEUP
SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Zachary Bouthillier (healthy); defensemen Patrick Musico (healthy) and Olivier DesRoches (healthy); and forwards Alexis Belisle (healthy) and Jeremie Jacob (healthy).Here's a look at tonight's Sea Dogs lineup in Gatineau, brought to you by @CantrburyDental. #AlwaysWearYourMouthguard— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) December 5, 2019
⏰: 8:30 p.m. Atlantic
📻: https://t.co/T6GTCvkJzg
💻: QMJHL Live pic.twitter.com/QWuDcfogb0
BACK AGAIN: Zachary Bouthillier was listed as a healthy scratch for Saint John, which meant Noah Patenaude got the start and Tommy DaSilva was the teams's backup. DaSilva joined the team for their last Quebec road trip when Patenaude was injured.
BRUTAL START: The Sea Dogs' start was not ideal on Wednesday night - and certainly not the start to the Jeff Cowan era anyone wanted. The Olympiques scored on their first two shots of the game - the first of which came just 1:22 into the game - to grab an early lead. They went on to add a third goal on just their fourth shot.
FIRST: Defenseman Kale McCallum netted his first career QMJHL goal in the second period, firing a backhand shot over the glove of Creed Jones.
SPREAD IT AROUND: It was nice to see Saint John's scoring depth on display again on Wednesday. Josh Lawrence, Dawson Stairs, Nicolas Guay, Jeremie Poirier, Kale McCallum, Alex Drover, Matt Gould and Maxim Cajkovic all scored. Joshua Roy had three assists and Charlie DesRoches two.
ROUGH TIMES: The Olympiques have now lost seven straight games. They have just seven wins in 28 games this season and have won just three times at home. These are dark days for the Olympiques franchise - both on and off the ice. Announced attendance was 1,543, but it looked significantly smaller than that.
ROUGH OUTING: After a terrific, 38-save performance on Sunday at TD Station, Noah Patenaude just couldn't find that same comfort level on Wednesday. He fought the puck all game long - but did make a couple key saves when the Olympiques were pressing.
BUSY STRETCH: This road trip kicked off a busy final stretch to the first half for the Sea Dogs. Including Wednesday's game, Saint John will play six games over the next 11 days.
NOTES: Bruce Smith had the call on Sea Dogs Radio Live and was joined on colour commentary by his son, Joe Smith. Joe, who played a couple seasons with the Woodstock Slammers, attended Sea Dogs training camp in 2005... Josh Lawrence scored his first goal since Nov. 14. He now has points in five straight games... Maxim Cajkovic has scored in eight of the 12 games he has played in since returning from injury... Joshua Roy's three assists were a career high in points... this was potentially Saint John's last game at the Robert Guertin Centre with a new arena expected to open in Gatineau next year.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs continue this Quebec road trip on Friday, visiting the Drummondville Voltigeurs at 8:30 p.m.
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