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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Recap: Sea Dogs win 6-2

FINAL: Bathurst 2, Saint John 6
Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs' hopes of winning the New Brunswick round-robin playoff tournament are very much alive.

The Sea Dogs, playing possibly their final home game of this bizarre season, picked up their second win of the tournament on Sunday night at TD Station, defeating the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 6-2. The win improves the Sea Dogs to 2-2 while the Titan fall to 2-1.

Playoff Standings
1. Bathurst: 2-1; 4 PTS
2. Saint John: 2-2; 4 PTS
3. Moncton: 1-2; 2 PTS

It wasn't perfect, but the Sea Dogs had a much better showing than Sunday's 4-2 loss in Moncton. Saint John rebounded from a slow start with a much better all around effort. They were able to take advantage of an undisciplined Titan squad, going 4/7 on the power play. Saint John also produced a couple of strong penalty kills in the third period when the game was still in reach for the Titan.

Josh Lawrence, Zachary Alchorn, Cam McDonald, Brady Burns (two) and Nicholas Girouard all scored for Saint John. Zachary Emond, making his fourth straight start, made 23 saves in the win.

The Titan, who saw key forwards Bennett MacArthur and Jacob Melanson tossed from this game, had goals from Felix-Antoine Marcotty and Mathieu Desgagnes. Chad Arsenault made 24 saves in the loss.

Shots were 4-0 Titan at the halfway point of the first. At 10:04, Saint John had a huge call go there way when MacArthur was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding Leighton Carruthers.

It would be the Titan striking first on the MacArthur call though. Marcotty went in alone and slid the puck under Emond to put the Titan up 1-0 thanks to the shorthanded goal 13:10. 43 seconds later Lawrence responded, squeezing the puck through the pads of Arsenault with a shot from the goal line to even things up at 1-1.

Alchorn scored just 14 seconds into the middle frame to give Saint John their first lead of the game. The lead didn't last long though as Desgagnes ripped a shot from the slot over the glove of Emond at 5:27 to even things up at 2-2.

It looked as though Sant John retook the lead with 5:01 remaining in the second. Burns made a nice move at the blue line to avoid a Bathurst defender and then fired a wrist shot through some traffic and in. The play was called a goal on the ice but after a review was taken off the board due to an offside.

Saint John did take a 3-2 lead at 19:04 of the second. On a power play, Ryan Francis made a nice feed over to an open MacDonald who beat Arsenault five-hole.

Melanson was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head on Nathan Drapeau at 19:50. At the buzzer, Girouard fed Burns at the top of the crease to give Saint John a 4-2 lead heading to the dressing room.

Saint John made it 5-2 at 3:18 of the third with a power play goal that saw a Burns pass redirected past Arsenault by Girouard.

Later on at 16:30, the Titan turned the puck over at the blue line. Burns converted, going down Main Street and firing the puck top corner on Arsenault to make it 6-2.

LINEUP
Francis - Reynolds - Kotkov
Burns - Lawrence - Girouard
Alchorn - MacDonald - Bezeau
Leonard - Carruthers - Savoie

McCallum - DesRoches
Poirier - Villeneuve
Drapeau - Inniss

Emond
Patenaude

SCRATCHES: Forwards Carter McCluskey (healthy) and Simon Hughes (healthy) along with defensemen Hunter Gartley (injured), Brandon Casey (healthy), Sam Dow and Jan Hampl (not arrived).

CHANGES: Saint John dressed 12 forwards and six defensemen on Sunday, something they've rarely done in the restart. The Sea Dogs put the big lines of Francis - Reynolds - Kotkov and Burns - Lawrence - Girouard back together. Charles Savoie returned from injury, playing in his first game since March 30. They also put the more traditional pairings back together on defense.

MORE TIME: Time expired to end the first period but 0.6 seconds were put back on the clock after a review. The Sea Dogs pulled Zachary Emond with the faceoff taking place in the offensive zone but they could not get a shot off from the draw

BIG CALL: Bennett MacArthur crunched Leighton Carruthers in front of the Titan bench at 10:04 of the opening frame. After some discussion, the officials handed MacArthur a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding. MacArthur is Bathurst's leading goal scorer this post-season. Both the Sea Dogs and the Titan ended up scoring during the penalty.
ALCHORN: Zachary Alchorn is having an impressive playoffs. With a second period goal on Sunday, Alchorn now has a goal and four assists in four post-season games.
CLOSE CALL: It looked as though Saint John had taken a 3-2 lead with 5:01 remaining in the second. Brady Burns made a nice move at the blue line before firing a wrist shot through some traffic and in. After a review, the goal was called off due to an offside. 

MELANSON TOSSED: Jacob Melanson was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check to the head on Nathan Drapeau at 19:50 of the second period. The loss of Melanson and MacArthur gave Bathurst just 10 forwards for the remainder of the game. Saint John would score two goals on the man advantage.
AT THE BUZZER: Brady Burns' power play goal came just prior to the buzzer sounding to end the second period.
LAST HOME GAME?: This was possibly Saint John's final game of the season at TD Station. They went 8-8-1-0 at home during the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs (not including the "home" game they played in Bathurst).

NOTES: The Sea Dogs have now allowed two shorthanded goals this post-season... Saint John had two goals called off in this game. Along with Brady Burns' that was declared offside, Peter Reynolds' marker at 5:55 of the third was called off due to a Ryan Francis interference penalty... Riley Kidney, another key Bathurst forward, was given a 10-minute unsportsmanlike misconduct in the third period... Josh Lawrence had six shots... hits were 17-11 Saint John... the attendance was 1,482... Sunday night games just hit different.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs visit the Titan in Bathurst next Friday at 7 p.m.
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