The Sea Dogs fell to 2-5-2-1 on the year with another road loss on Friday, blowing two one-goal leads and losing 4-3 to the rebuilding Moncton Wildcats. Saint John was outshot 49-32 in the game and the score could have been much worse if not for the strong play of netminder Creed Jones.
Saint John's penalty kill, which entered the game with an ugly 67.9% rating, struggled once again, allowing two power play goals which proved to be costly.
It felt like the Sea Dogs had a good chance of winning despite the Wildcats carrying quite a bit of the play. Saint John couldn't get much going in the third and allowed two Moncton goals - including the game-winner at 8:23 on a nice tip by Alexis Daniel.
10 games in, the Sea Dogs have plenty of work ahead of them.
There was some good news for Saint John in this game. Both Liam Leonard and Brady Burns scored their first goals on the season and Jones, who has struggled, had his best game as a Dog. Nicholas Girouard scored Saint John's other goal.
Philippe Daoust scored twice for Moncton while singles came from Daniel and Jordan Spence. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 29 stops in the win.
LINEUP
Leonard - MacDonald - Bezeau
Savoie - Reynolds - Roy
Girouard - Lawrence - Stairs
Burns - Drover
Drapeau - DesRoches
McCallum - Villeneuve
Poirier - Inniss
Roode
Jones
Patenaude
SCRATCHES: Forwards Leighton Carruthers (healthy), Julian Vander Voet (healthy) and Vladislav Kotkov (not yet arrived) along with defensemen Hunter Gartley (healthy) and Jan Hampl (not yet arrived).
BIG REBOUND: Goaltender Creed Jones hadn't played since getting yanked in Saint John's Oct. 24 game against Bathurst, a game that saw him allow five goals in 40 minutes of action. He rebounded quite nicely from that outing, making 45 stops on Friday. He gave the Dogs a chance to win with several key stops throughout.
Jones reserving his spot in next week's Saves of the Week👇 pic.twitter.com/y5ZLRzUzNO
— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) November 6, 2020
NIGHT OF FIRSTS: A couple of Sea Dogs had much needed strong nights. Liam Leonard and Brady Burns both scored their first goals of the season - and you could tell by the celebrations that there was some relief. Burns had five goals in his first nine games last season.
ROAD WOES: Saint John fell to 0-3-1-1 on the road with this loss. They have been outscored 25-15 in those games. The Sea Dogs play three home games following Saturday's contest in Halifax.
MONCTON HOT: The Wildcats have now won four straight games and are 5-4-0-0 on the season. The Maritimes Division standings are certainly not what most thought they would look like at this point.
NOTES: There was a pre-game Remembrance Day ceremony... Cam MacDonald and Jeremie Poirier each had two assists... Alexis Daniel's goal was his first in the QMJHL... the Sea Dogs were dominated on faceoffs, winning just 28 of 80... Jordan Spence had 11 shots... the attendance of 2,235 was announced as a sell out... the Sea Dogs and Wildcats meet again next Tuesday and Friday at TD Station.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Halifax Mooseheads tomorrow at 7 p.m.
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