Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3 (OT)

FINAL: Bathurst 4, Saint John 3 (OT)

FREDERICTON - The Acadie-Bathurst Titan erased a two-goal deficit and went on to defeat the Saint John Sea Dogs 4-3 in overtime on Saturday at the Aitken Centre.

Harijs Brants scored the overtime winner to give Bathurst the all-important pre-season extra point. Dylan Andrews, Jaxon Bellamy and Noah Ryan also scored for Bathurst. Jack Howatt made 28 saves in the win.

William Dufour, Kobe Burt and Cole Foston scored for the Sea Dogs. Noah Patenaude made 38 saves in the loss.

Both teams were missing a bunch of regulars due to NHL camps so the result of this game is kind of... whatever.

Saint John is now 5-1-1-0 in pre-season play with both losses coming against Bathurst.

Dufour opened the scoring at 7:08 of the first period. Burt doubled Saint John's lead at 4:15 of the second, putting a rebound past the Titan 'tender.

Bathurst got on the board at 15:40 of the middle frame. Not long after a Brady Stone penalty expired, Andrews put a rebound over a down Patenaude to make it 2-1.

The Titan evened things up at 5:31 of the third. Patenaude was down after a flurry of action in the crease, allowing Bellamy to score from the slot and make it 2-2.

At 12:03, Foston scored his first of the pre-season to put Saint John back in front, 3-2.

With 35.4 seconds remaining, Ryan backhanded a shot past Patenaude to tie the match up again and send things to overtime tied at 3-3.

Brants ended things at 4:57 of the extra frame. With Nathan Drapeau the lone man back on a two-on-one, Brants kept the puck and ripped a shot past Patenaude to make it a 4-3 final.

LINEUP

Picard - Lawrence - Dufour

McCluskey - Savoie - Bezeau

Foston - Laforge - Watt

Bastarache - Burt

Drapeau - Despont

Gartley - Inniss

Stone - Carruthers

Patenaude

Lemieux

NHL CAMPS: Bothe teams were missing quite a few players due to NHL camps. The Sea Dogs were without regulars Peter Reynolds (Columbus), William Villeneuve (Toronto), Cam MacDonald (Tampa Bay), Ryan Francis (Calgary), Jeremie Poirier (Calgary), Charlie DesRoches (Buffalo) and Brady Burns (Edmonton).

PUCK DROP: Former Sea Dogs captain, UNB Reds alumnus and New Maryland native Mike Thomas performed the ceremonial faceoff.

UNB fan favourite and @SJSeaDogs legend @ThommerBomber dropping the puck for tonight’s Q game! pic.twitter.com/BqLhzj96n9

— UNB Men’s Hockey (@UNBMHockey) September 18, 2021

BASTARACHE: 19-year-old forward Yannic Bastarache was inserted into the Sea Dogs lineup for the first time this pre-season. Bastaraache is quite familiar with the Titan having spent the past two seasons with the club. Bastarache was credited with an assist on Saturday.

FIVE-GOAL CLUB: William Dufour? More like William Dufive. Dufour netted his fifth goal of the pre-season in the first period, placing him a tie with Josh Lawrence, Peter Reynolds and the departed Vince Elie for the team's pre-season lead.

FREDERICTON: The Sea Dogs leave their pre-season home with a 2-0-1-0 record. They ended up playing just three games instead of the scheduled four due to last week's cancelled game against the Moncton Wildcats.

NOTES: Josh Lawrence, Olivier Picard and Christopher Inniss each wore an 'A' on their jersey... Noah Patenaude played a full 60 minutes for the first time this pre-season... Fleaburn was in attendance... Olivier Picard and Lane Hinkley had a lengthy fight at the end of the second period... following Cole Foston's third period goal, Riley Bezeau was given a 10-minute misconduct for a mouthguard violation... attendance was 1,314... the Sea Dogs and Titan meet again on Oct. 8 in Bathurst.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs play their final game of the pre-season on Friday at 7 p.m. in Halifax.