Must-win Game 5 awaits Sea Dogs

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - There is a lot on the line for the Saint John Sea Dogs on Thursday.

After ending the regular season on a 15-game winning streak, the Sea Dogs have dropped two of their four games so far this post-season, setting up a winner-take-all Game 5 on Thursday night at TD Station.

It's been a disappointing start to the playoffs for the Sea Dogs, a team most predicted would have a fairly easy time with a young Rimouski Oceanic squad. That hasn't been the case as Serge Beausoleil's team has looked very much like a Serge Beausoleil coached team, running with strong goaltending and good defensive structure.

A Sea Dogs loss Thursday would mean more than a month of nothing but practices ahead of the Memorial Cup. While teams have figured out how to use the break as an advantage heading into the tournament, every team would prefer to go through the front door as league champion.

Perhaps the Sea Dogs being put into this must-win position will be a positive moving forward. This is a team - thanks to the pandemic - with limited playoff experience and even less "big game" experience. Maybe being pushed into the fire this early in the playoffs will give the team some good learnings and momentum heading into what should be an even more difficult second round.

Let's not forget that this isn't the first time a QMJHL Memorial Cup host has had to fight through the first round. The 2019 and 2015 Memorial Cup hosts needed seven games to advance to the second round - and both those teams made it to the President Cup final.

A few other random notes and thoughts heading into Thursday:

• While this Game 5 isn't technically a Game 7, it's essentially a Game 7. The only other Game 7 in Sea Dogs playoff history was in the second round of the 2016 playoffs when Saint John defeated the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 6-2.
• That 2016 series against Cape Breton is also the only series in franchise history that the Sea Dogs have won after losing the first game. The Sea Dogs lost the first game of this current series with Rimouski.
• The Sea Dogs have, of course, played a few other winner-take-all type games at the Memorial Cup. In the 2011 final they defeated Mississauga 3-1 but lost semifinal games in 2012 (7-4 to Shawinigan) and 2017 (6-3 to Erie).
• Ryan Francis missed Tuesday's game with an illness. Philippe Daoust and Connor Trenholm, who have both scored two goals in this series and usually play on the second line with Francis, did not record a shot on goal Tuesday.
• With Francis out sick for Game 4 and Yan Kuznetsov missing Game 1 for similar reasons, you have to wonder if the Sea Dogs aren't quite as healthy as the lineup sheet shows.
• Several members of Saint John's top-six haven't been able to breakthrough so far in this series. Josh Lawrence (one assist), Brady Burns (no points) and Francis (one assist) have had some chances but the puck luck hasn't been there.
• The Sea Dogs are 2/10 on the power play in this series and failed to score on a five-minute man advantage in Game 4. The Oceanic are 0/15 on the power play.
• Tuesday's 1-0 loss was Saint John's first shutout defeat of the season. Just a few nights ago, the Oceanic watched the Sea Dogs accept the Luc Robitaille Trophy for having the regular season's best offense.
• In the regular season and playoffs combined, the Sea Dogs are now 3-3-0-0 against the Oceanic. Bathurst and Charlottetown are the only other teams that have beaten Saint John more than twice this year.
• After *everything* that's happened over the past two years, it'll be fun to watch a truly meaningful game - and hopefully there's a good crowd to watch it. Enjoy.