Saturday, November 6, 2021

Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Drummondville 4
Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. - The Saint John Sea Dogs came up just short in the final game of their three-in-three Quebec road trip.

A power play goal in the third period by Jeremy Lapointe secured a 4-3 victory for the Drummondville Voltigeurs over the Sea Dogs on Saturday at the Marcel Dionne Centre. Jacob Dion, Simon Hughes and Tristan Roy also scored for Drummondville.

Volts netminder Francesco Lapenna made a few huge stops that could have easily been Saint John goals. He made 27 saves in the win.

Saint John had a rough start, allowing two goals in the first 5:21 of action and were being outshot 8-1 at one point. But, like the previous two games of this road trip, the Sea Dogs settled in and started to take control.

Brady Burns scored two goals in the second half of the first period to tie things up at 2-2. Evgeny Sapelnikov scored at 5:47 of the second period to put Saint John in front 3-2.

The Volts tied the game at 10:45 of the middle frame, which sent the teams to the dressing rooms even at 3-3.

Saint John had a glorious chance to retake the lead 25 seconds into the third when Roy was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for head-butting Jeremie Poirier. But the Saint John power play that has looked so good of late struggled to get rolling and a Josh Lawrence tripping call at 4:10 ended the man advantage early.

Lapointe scored on a power play at 8:54 to make it 4-3 for homeside. Despite some good chances later in the period, the Sea Dogs could not even things up.

Despite the loss, taking four of six points on this tough road trip is pretty solid. The team's play - even in this loss - was also very encouraging and seems to be trending in the right direction.

LINEUP
Burns - Lawrence - Dufour 
Savoie - Reynolds - Francis 
Picard - MacDonald - Bezeau 
Foston - Crete - Sapelnikov 

DesRoches - Villeneuve
Poirier - Inniss
Drapeau - Despont

Lemieux
Patenaude

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without defenseman Hunter Gartley along with forwards Carter McCluskey, Adam Bowness and Nico Laforge.

SAME LINEUP: Saint John went with the same lineup they dressed in the previous two games of this road trip but with Jonathan Lemieux starting in net. Noah Patenaude started Friday's game while Lemieux played Thursday. Lemieux's day was short though as he got pulled after allowing two goals on seven shots in the opening 5:41 of the game. Patenaude was good in relief, making 22 stops.

HUGHES: Given how former Sea Dogs seem to perform against their old club, Simon Hughes doubling his season point total less than six minutes into the game wasn't a huge shock. Hughes recorded a goal and an assist in the first period, giving him two goals and two assists in 11 games this season.

HE'S BACK: William Dufour had an assist in his return to Drummondville. He only officially recorded two shots but did generate a few other quality chances throughout the game.

BURNS: Brady Burns had his first two-goal game of the season.
BIG SAVE: I was surprised how good of a shot Ryan Francis was able to get off on this chance.
PRIDE: This was Drummondville's Pride game and players wore rainbow coloured tape on their sticks during warmup.
NOTES: The game was broadcast nationally on CBC, meaning the media timeouts were a bit longer than usual... rough game for William Villeneuve who took four minor penalties... Riley Bezeau had five hits... Saint John had their three-game winning streak and four-game road winning streak both come to an end... Josh Lawrence extended his road point streak to seven games.

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Shawinigan Cataractes on Friday at 7 p.m. at TD Station.
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