Recap: Sea Dogs win 5-3

FINAL: Saint John 5, Moncton 3

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

MONCTON - The Saint John Sea Dogs survived a third period scare to earn their 12th straight win on Saturday.

The Sea Dogs were cruising through the first 40 minutes at Avenir Centre and entered the final frame up 3-1 over the Moncton Wildcats with a shots on goal edge of 32-9. But the Wildcats caught the Sea Dogs snoozing in the third, scoring two goals in the opening six minutes to tie things up at 3-3. Shots were 12-3 in favour of Moncton at the halfway mark of the period.

Josh Lawrence would break the tie with his 30th goal of the season at 14:07 and the Sea Dogs killed off a penalty late. William Dufour added an empty net goal to give the Sea Dogs a 5-3 win.

Peter Reynolds scored a pair of goals while Olivier Picard added a single. Nikolas Hurtubise made 19 stops in the win.

Brooklyn Kalmikov, Mathis Cloutier and Anthony Hamel had Moncton goals. Vincent Filion made 37 stops in the loss.

The third period scare is perhaps a bit of a wake up call that Saint John can't take teams like Moncton lightly down the stretch. They have more games against lower-end-of-the-standings-opponents like this one coming up, facing Cape Breton twice and Moncton again.

LINEUP

Burns - Lawrence - Dufour

Reynolds - Daoust - Francis

Ansons - MacDonald - Lessard

Picard - Chantler - Blagden

Sevigny - Villeneuve

Kuznetsov - Poirier

Drapeau - DesRoches

Hurtubise

Couture

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Noah Patenaude (injury); defensemen Vincent Despont (healthy) and Hunter Gartley (healthy); and forwards Riley Bezeau (injury) and Connor Trenholm (injury). Chantler was the team's final scratch.

NOTES: Peter Reynolds moved up to the second line to replace Connor Trenholm. Jacob Chantler returned to the lineup to take Reynolds' usual spot... the Wildcats wore their 25th anniversary third jerseys... after being held pointless in his past two games, William Dufour recorded a goal and two assists... this was Reynolds' third two-goal game of the season... there was a clock malfunction in the third period that caused a brief delay... Anthony Hamel's third period goal was his first in the QMJHL... Saint John nearly had to deal with a 5-on-3 penalty kill late in the third when Charlie DesRoches flipped the puck out of play. But after a review, it was ruled the puck was deflected... a good crowd of 4,616 attended the game... the Sea Dogs and Wildcats meet in their regular season finales next Sunday at Avenir Centre.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Cape Breton Eagles for a pair of games next week. The first game takes place Thursday at 7 p.m. at TD Station.