Recap: Sea Dogs lose 5-3

FINAL: Charlottetown 5, Saint John 3

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs suffered a 5-3 loss to the Charlottetown Islanders on Saturday night at TD Station.

The Sea Dogs, missing William Dufour from their lineup due to world junior camp and adding Yan Kuznetsov to the backend, looked disjointed in the first period and struggled to get organized, falling behind 2-0.

Saint John got better as the game went on but could never even things up. Trailing by a goal, they pressed hard in the final few minutes of the match before Patrick Guay scored into an empty net at 19:42 of the third to secure an Islanders victory.

Jakub Brabenec scored twice for Charlottetown while singles came from Guay, Sam Archibald and Brett Budgell. Oliver Satny made 34 stops in the win.

The Islanders were missing their leading scorer in Xavier Simoneau (injury) and best defenseman in Lukas Cormier (world junior camp).

Adam Bowness, Jeremie Poirier and Josh Lawrence scored for Saint John. Jonathan Lemieux made 24 stops in the loss.

LINEUP

Reynolds - Lawrence - Francis

Burns - MacDonald - Chantler

Picard - Crete - Bezeau

Bowness - Laforge - McCluskey

Kuznetsov - Villeneuve

Poirier - DesRoches

Drapeau - Inniss

Lemieux

Myatt

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Noah Patenaude (injury); forwards Charles Savoie, William Dufour (Canada world junior camp) and Evgeny Sapelnikov (Belarus national junior team); along with defensemen Hunter Gartley (healthy) and Vincent Despont (healthy).

DEBUT: At long last, defenseman Yan Kuznetsov, wearing No. 2, made his Sea Dogs debut on Saturday night. The Calgary Flames prospect joined the club last week but could not play as paperwork was still being finalized. Kuznetsov didn't have the greatest debut of all time, finishing a -3, but seemed to get more comfortable as the game went along. He'll no doubt improve as he gets used to Saint John's systems and the players around him.

FIRST GOALS: Both Sam Archibald of the Islanders and Adam Bowness of the Sea Dogs scored their first QMJHL goals in this game.

A first goal deserves a big celly!

Adam Bowness is the first Sea Dog on the board tonight with his first QMJHL goal🚨 pic.twitter.com/wHClbBgjlU

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) December 12, 2021

LAWRENCE: With a goal in the third period, Josh Lawrence has now scored in four straight home games.

VS ISLES: The Sea Dogs are now 1-4 against the Islanders this season and are nine points behind them in the standings (Saint John has played one less game). There's still plenty of time to make up ground, but the Dogs will need to solve the Isles in the second half if they want to push for top spot in the league.

NOTES: Ray Edwards, director of player development for the Calgary Flames, was in the building to watch prospects Yan Kuznetsov, Jeremie Poirier and Ryan Francis... Francis had two assists... Poirier had seven shots... Cam MacDonald had five hits... with Noah Patenaude injured, Alex Myatt of the Saint John Vito's was Jonathan Lemieux's backup... Drew Elliot and Olivier Picard dropped the gloves in the second period... attendance was 2,466.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Val-d'Or Foreurs tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at TD Station.