Recap: Sea Dogs win 4-2

FINAL: Moncton 2, Saint John 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs had one of their best showings of the season on Tuesday night at TD Station.

Despite allowing the first goal, the Sea Dogs controlled most of the game, skating to a fairly solid 4-2 win over the Moncton Wildcats. The victory ended a three-game losing streak for the Sea Dogs, a streak that included two loses against Moncton last week.

Joshua Roy, Riley Bezeau, Brady Burns and Alex Drover all scored for Saint John. Noah Patenaude made 21 saves in the win.

The Sea Dogs outshot the Wildcats 38-23 in the game. Moncton struggled to get much going offensively, especially in the middle part of the game. The Dogs scored twice on 10 shots in the second period while the 'Cats failed to register any quality scoring chances.

Moncton goals came from Connor Richard and Yoan Loshing. Dakota Lund-Cornish made 34 saves in the loss.

This was just Saint John's third win of the season and second in regulation time. Maybe, just maybe, this is the win that gets this team rolling. We'll soon find out with the squad back in action on Friday and Saturday at TD Station.

LINEUP

Leonard - MacDonald - Bezeau

Girouard - Reynolds - Roy

Savoie - Lawrence - Burns

Stairs - Carruthers - Drover

Drapeau - Inniss

McCallum - DesRoches

Poirier - Villeneuve

Patenaude

Jones

SCRATCHES: Forwards Julian Vander Voet (healthy) and Vladislav Kotkov (not yet arrived) along with defensemen Hunter Gartley (healthy), Benjamin Roode (healthy) and Jan Hampl (not yet arrived).

FIRST GOAL: Former Sea Dogs forward Connor Richard - a Quispamsis native and a Saint John Vito's alumnus - scored his first QMJHL goal in the first period, firing a hard wrist shot past Noah Patenaude from the slot. Richard, a 10th-round pick of Saint John in 2018, appeared in three games with the Sea Dogs last season. Later in the game, Moncton's Yoan Loshing netted his first QMJHL goal.

HOME COOKING: With a power play goal in the first period, Joshua Roy extended his home goal scoring streak to five games. He now has a team high seven goals on the year.

PENALTY SHOT: Gabriel Fortier was awarded a penalty shot in the first period but his attempt was stopped by Noah Patenaude. It was the fourth penalty shot awarded in the QMJHL this season and second for Fortier.

HEATING UP: After going goalless in his first eight games, Brady Burns has started to heat up, scoring in each of his past three games. Burns had 27 goals last season.

PENALTY KILL: After a rough few outings, Saint John's penalty kill looked much better on Tuesday, killing off all four Moncton opportunities. The Sea Dogs certainly benefited from a struggling Wildcats offense as well.

FAMILIAR FACES: This was the third meeting in less than a week between the Sea Dogs and Wildcats - and they meet again on Friday at TD Station. Tuesday's game and last Wednesday's contest were makeup games from when the Moncton region was turned into a COVID orange zone by the province. Saint John is now 1-2-0-0 against Moncton this season.

THIS HAPPENED:

rest of Canada: ...

Atlantic Bubble: pic.twitter.com/QWtxvi4prw

— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) November 10, 2020

NOTES: Connor Richard did a solo lap around the ice at the start of warmup before being joined by his teammates... there was a pre-game Remembrance Day ceremony... the Sea Dogs have scored first in just three of their 12 games this season... Jordan Spence extended his point streak to nine games... Jeremie Poirier had a Sea Dogs high six shots... Saint John outhit Moncton 22-11... the 23 shots Noah Patenaude faced is the fewest he's faced in a full game in his QMJHL career... the attendance was 1,427.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Wildcats again on Friday night at 7 p.m. at TD Station.