Recap: Sea Dogs win 6-3

FINAL: Bathurst 3, Saint John 6

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - It hasn't been easy but the Saint John Sea Dogs have won three straight games.

The Sea Dogs won their third consecutive contest on Sunday at TD Station, defeating the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 6-3. Like the previous two games, it wasn't simple, with Saint John blowing a 2-0 lead. The club never trailed though, ultimately taking the back-and-forth affair.

Saint John's top line of Ryan Francis, Peter Reynolds and Vladislav Kotkov has been all the talk this week, but on Sunday, several other players stepped up. Along with Reynolds, Cam MacDonald, Liam Leonard, Brady Burns, Riley Bezeau and Christopher Inniss all scored.

Zachary Emond made 38 stops in the win.

Saint John led 1-0 after one thanks to MacDonald scoring on a breakaway - a goal that was setup by a great feed from William Villeneuve behind his own net.

Leonard made it 2-0 Saint John early in the second, completing a two-on-none with Reynolds. 

Bathurst got on the board at 12:54 when Logan Chisholm scored on a deflection. Less than two minutes later, Yannic Bastarache put in a rebound, tying the game at 2-2.

Reynolds scored at 5:03 of the third to put Saint John back in front. 93 seconds later, Chisholm redirected another shot past Emond to even things up once again.

Burns' goal at 11:16 proved to be the game-winner. Bezeau jammed home an insurance goal at 18:08 and Inniss iced it with an empty net goal at 19:32.

Jan Bednar made 28 stops in the loss.

A week into this bizarre "second half" and the Sea Dogs clearly have some things to work on. But they're picking up wins at least, something that have been hard to come by for this club the past couple seasons.

LINEUP

Francis - Reynolds - Kotkov

Leonard - MacDonald - Bezeau

Burns - Lawrence - Girouard

Savoie - Carruthers

McCallum - DesRoches

Poirier - Villeneuve

Drapeau - Inniss

Casey

Emond

Patenaude

SCRATCHES: Forwards Simon Hughes (healthy), Carter McCluskey (healthy) and Zachary Alchorn (healthy); and defensemen Hunter Gartley (injured) and Jan Hampl (not arrived). Defenseman Sam Dow, who played in Saint John's last two games, was also not in the lineup.

DEBUT: Defenseman Brandon Casey made his Sea Dogs debut on Sunday. The 19-year-old was claimed off waivers from the Rimouski Oceanic in January. As the seventh defenseman, Casey didn't get a ton of ice time in Sunday's game.

LONG 2-ON-0: Two-on-nones don't get much longer than this.

🚨GOAL🚨

Francis dishes to Leonard on the 2-on-0 and it's a 2-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/SuuXoC7POf

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) March 14, 2021

PK PROBS: Saint John's penalty kill has been hot and cold so far in this "second half." Some times it looks great, other times not so much. Bathurst went 1-for-4 on the man advantage Sunday and the Sea Dogs produced some good kills in the third period to remain in front.

PACKED HOUSE: The crowd of 1,517 at TD Station was announced as a sell out. It was Saint John's first home game since Nov. 14, 2020 and the team's biggest home crowd of the season.

It's official! Today's game is SOLD OUT! Thank you to all of our fans for their continued support. pic.twitter.com/b6vt8BbrY9

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) March 14, 2021

NOTES: Liam Leonard's second period goal was the first time he had scored against his former team... Saint John has won five straight home games... another two assists for Ryan Francis who now has points in eight straight games... the Sea Dogs are slowly creeping up to the Titan in the Maritimes Division standings. The top two teams in each division receive first round playoff byes.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Moncton Wildcats on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.