The Sea Dogs, even though they carried the play for a lot of the game, were fortunate to leave Saturday's road contest against the Halifax Mooseheads with a point, losing 5-4 in a shootout. Saint John got off to a slow start and trailed for much of the game, but another clutch goal from Joshua Roy late in the third period sent the match to extra time.
The Sea Dogs are now 1-1-1-1 on the season with all four of their games being decided by one-goal and three of the four needing extra time. It's still far too early to make any final judgements on this team, and this kind of four-game stretch during the middle of the season would probably go unnoticed. But for a team that is supposed to be making significant strides forward, the 2020-21 Sea Dogs so far have looked... average.
Saint John has shown various signs of promise in every game. They've also shown various signs of concern in every game. What they haven't done is put together a solid 60-minute performance - win or lose. It's still early - but there is clearly plenty of work to be done.
Halifax controlled the opening half of the first period on Saturday at Scotiabank Centre and grabbed a 2-0 lead. Riley Bezeau's goal with eight seconds remaining gave the Dogs - who had a strong final few minutes in the opening frame - a much needed lift entering the dressing room.
Josh Lawrence tied the game at 1:22 of the second period only to have Elliot Desnoyers put Halifax back in front just 1:37 later. Despite the Moose goal, the Sea Dogs really picked up momentum in the middle frame, outshooting the home side 17-7.
Alex Drover tied the game at 3-3 at 5:56. The Sea Dogs were applying some good offensive zone pressure late in the third but, in a very 2020-21 Sea Dogs moment, Markus Vidicek scored to put Halifax in front 4-3 at 17:20. Fortunately for Saint John, Roy netted the equalizer at 18:34.
Josh Lawrence had a great chance to win the match late in overtime but hit the post. In the shootout, Bobby Orr, of course, scored the winner.
Cole McLaren made 37 stops in the win and Creed Jones made 23 saves in the loss.
LINEUP
Stairs - Lawrence - Roy
Burns - Reynolds - Bezeau
Leonard - MacDonald - Drover
Savoie - Carruthers
Poirier - Inniss
McCallum - DesRoches
Drapeau - Villeneuve
Gartley
Jones
Patenaude
SCRATCHES: Forwards Nicholas Girouard (injured), Julian Vander Voet (healthy) and Vladislav Kotkov (not yet arrived) along with defensemen Benjamin Roode (healthy) and Jan Hampl (not yet arrived).
FIRST GOAL: Riley Bezeau scored his first career QMJHL goal in the first period.
First Q goal for Riley Bezeau⬇️ pic.twitter.com/fnqdJjNsGZ
— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) October 17, 2020
ROUGH FIRST PERIOD: Saint John trailed 2-1 and were outshot 11-6 in the opening 20 minutes - with three of those six shots coming late in the period. The Sea Dogs have now been outscored 5-2 in first periods this season.
ROY: Joshua Roy was buzzing in this game, recording a goal, an assist and seven shots. He has points in all four of Saint John's games this season.
DROVER: Good to see Alex Drover get a goal in regulation and another in the shootout. He also had six shots. He's been good so far and deserves to get some rewards for his efforts.
SHOOTOUT: Speaking of that shootout, here's all the goals - and Drover's is worthing checking out.
NOTES: Halifax area rookies Cam MacDonald and Leighton Carruthers were both given a few solo laps of the ice at the beginning of warmup... MacDonald was given a loud applause when his name was announced in the starting lineup... Dawson Stairs and Charlie DesRoches each had two assists... Jeremie Poirier had a rough night, going -3. He didn't record a shot on goal - which is odd for him... the Mooseheads went 1/3 on the power play, dropping Saint John's penalty kill to 63.6%... Saint John is 0-0-1-1 on the road this season... there was a somewhat lengthy review following Halifax's fourth goal, which was very close to being knocked in with a high stick.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday at 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment