Recap: Sea Dogs win 3-2 (SO)

FINAL: Saint John 3, Halifax 2 (SO)

HALIFAX - The Saint John Sea Dogs ended pre-season play with a 3-2 shootout victory on Friday night.

Riley Bezeau scored the only goal of the shootout as the Sea Dogs edged the Halifax Mooseheads at Scotiabank Centre. William Dufour and Cole Foston scored in regulation time while Jonathan Lemieux made 33 saves in the win.

Markus Vidicek and Senna Peeters scored for Halifax. Brady James made 38 saves in the loss.

It was not a pretty game at times with both teams producing plenty of turnovers and sloppy play. Both sides were missing some of their top players due to NHL training camps - and it showed at times.

The Sea Dogs, once again, played a physical and feisty game, not backing down from any scrums or rough stuff. They also got great, timely goaltending from Lemieux.

Saint John ends the pre-season with a 6-1-1-0 record. They open the regular season on Friday at home against the Charlottetown Islanders.

LINEUP

Burns - Lawrence - Dufour

Picard - Savoie - Sapelnikov

McCluskey - Foston - Bezeau

Bastarache - Laforge - Watt

DesRoches - Carruthers

Drapeau - Inniss

Gartley - Despont

Lemieux

Patenaude

CAMPING: The Sea Dogs were without Ryan Francis (Calgary), Jeremie Poirier (Calgary), Peter Reynolds (Columbus), Cam MacDonald (Tampa Bay) and William Villeneuve (Toronto) due to NHL training camps. For Halifax, Bobby Orr (Carolina), Elliot Desnoyers (Philadelphia), Zachary L'Heureux (Nashville) and Cameron Whynot (Calgary) remain away.

DEBUT: Import Evgeny Sapelnikov made his Sea Dogs pre-season debut. The Belarusian forward wasn't overly noticeable in this game, recording one shot. A second-round pick in this year's CHL Import Draft, Sapelnikov wore No. 95, which is certainly unique in these parts.

Welcome to Saint John Yevgeni! Привет! 🇧🇾➡️🇨🇦

Yevgeni Sapelnikov will play in tonight's pre-season game in Halifax 🙌 pic.twitter.com/lvOpEPPgkq

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) September 24, 2021

OLD MATE: Cole Foston had quite a night against his old team, scoring once while generating a few other great chances. He was even used on the power play at times. 

DUFOUR: William Dufour scored his sixth goal of the pre-season on Friday. He scored at least once in all four exhibition games he played in this year - which is pretty good.

NOTES: Brady Burns (Edmonton) and Charlie DesRoches (Buffalo) returned to the Sea Dogs lineup after attending NHL rookie/development camps... DesRoches, Josh Lawrence and Olivier Picard all wore an 'A' on their jerseys... Saint John opened the scoring just 19 seconds into the game... the Mooseheads were awarded the first four power plays - which was followed by four Saint John power plays... William Dufour had eight shots... Christopher Inniss had three hits... this was Saint John's first game in Nova Scotia since November 2020.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs begin regular season play on Friday, Oct. 1 at TD Station against the Charlottetown Islanders.