Pre-Season Game Day 7: vs Wildcats

SAINT JOHN - The pre-season comes to a close tonight for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Sea Dogs play their seventh and final exhibition contest of this bizarre 2020-21 campaign against the Moncton Wildcats at TD Station. It's the first meeting between the two rivals this year.

Both the Sea Dogs and Wildcats enter tonight's game with seven points. The winner will clinch first-place in the Maritimes Division this pre-season - which, as we all know, is what every team dreams of doing.

Game time is 7 p.m.

TV/Radio/Webcast: None/None/Sea Dogs YouTube Channel

2020 pre-season records: The Sea Dogs are 3-2-0-1 this pre-season while the Wildcats are 3-1-1-0.

2019-20 records: The Sea Dogs finished the shortened season with a 30-33-1-0 record for 61 points (fourth Maritimes, sixth Eastern, 11th QMJHL) while the Wildcats went 50-13-1-0 for 101 points (first Maritimes, first Eastern, first QMJHL).

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 5-4 shootout win in Cape Breton last Saturday. Liam Leonard, Alex Drover, Cam MacDonald and Christopher Inniss scored for Saint John in regulation. Daniel Moody made 34 saves in the win. The Wildcats are coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Saturday. Jacob Hudson scored twice for the Wildcats while singles came from Jeremy Berube and Jordan Spence. Dakota Lund-Cornish and Nicholas Sheehan combined to allow five goals on 27 shots.

2019-20 head-to-head: The Sea Dogs were 3-5-0-0 against the Wildcats last season while Moncton went 5-3-0-0 against Saint John.

Last meeting: Valentine's Day at TD Station where the Wildcats defeated the Sea Dogs 4-1. Gabriel Fortier scored twice for Moncton while Mika Cyr and Jakob Pelletier added solo markers. Jeremie Poirier scored Saint John's lone goal. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 16 saves in the win. Zachary Bouthillier made 46 stops in the loss.

Ex-Sea Dogs on the Wildcats: Forward Connor Richard and radio broadcaster Tim Roszell.

Wildcat to watch (if he plays): Gabriel Fortier, who has been returned to the Wildcats due to not having anywhere else to play pro right now, scored six goals and two assists in just four games against Saint John last season.

Random stats: While their shot totals went down a bit last weekend in Sydney, the Sea Dogs still lead the pre-season in shots per game with an average of 39.41.

Notes: Alex Drover leads Saint John in pre-season points (eight) and assists (six)... Charlie DesRoches and Cam MacDonald each have a team high four goals... a handful of Wildcats are tied for the team scoring lead with five points each... ex-Sea Dog Connor Richard and rookie Yoan Loshing each have a Moncton high three goals... Dominic Leblanc has a team high four assists... we should see lineups that are pretty close to what we'll see on opening night... Creed Jones, coming off his second 14-day quarantine in just over a month, will presumably make his Sea Dogs debut in net.

Out of town

Chicoutimi at Shawinigan - 6:00 PM EDT 

Victoriaville at Québec - 7:00 PM EDT 

Val-d'Or at Rouyn-Noranda - 7:00 PM EDT

Next game: The Sea Dogs begin the regular season next Friday in Bathurst.