Recap: Sea Dogs lose 5-2

FINAL: Victoriaville 5, Saint John 2

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - It was a weekend of mixed results for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Following a 7-4 win over the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday, the Sea Dogs returned to TD Station ice but fell 5-2 to the Victoriaville Tigres. The Sea Dogs are now 2-2-0-0 on the season as they head out on the road for a three-in-three in Quebec.

Saint John opened the scoring on Saturday but the Tigres tied it late in the first. Victoriaville scored three times in the second period and added another in the third to secure the win.

Victoriaville was coming off a come-from-behind overtime win in Halifax the night before. The Tigres have now won three straight games.

Tommy Cormier scored a pair of goals for the Tigres while singles came from Maxime Pellerin, Nikita Prishchepov and Benjamin Vigneault. Gabriel D'Aigle made 32 saves in the win. 

Noah Reinhart and Cam MacDonald scored for Saint John. Ventsislav Shingarov, making his fourth straight start, was pulled early in the third after allowing a fifth goal on 19 shots. Rookie Olivier Brideau stopped all six shots he faced in relief.

LINEUP

Reynolds - MacDonald - Burns

Szczerba - Trenholm - Reinhart

Simek - Burbidge - Elie

Thifault - Cournoyer - Beaulieu

Tivey - DesRoches

Bilodeau - Despont

Akkouche - Cosman

Shingarov

Brideau

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise (injury); defensemen Jake Tracey (healthy) and Jeremie Richard (healthy); and forwards Nico Laforge (injury), Eriks Mateiko (first game of a two-game suspension) and Marshall Lessard (injury).

FIRST GOAL: Noah Reinhart scored his first QMJHL goal in the first period - and it came off an impressive individual effort.

Noah Reinhart gets us on the board with his FIRST @QMJHL GOAL! 🚨#CityofChampions pic.twitter.com/rmawu5Pxgl

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) October 8, 2022

DEBUT: Rookie goaltender Olivier Brideau appeared in his first QMJHL game, taking over for Ventsislav Shingarov early in the third period. Brideau stopped all six shots he faced. Assuming Nikolas Hurtubise isn't back by next weekend, Brideau will presumably start one of Saint John's three games in Quebec.

NOTES: The provincial champion Saint John Alpines were honoured before the game... forward Danny Akkouche dressed as a third paring defensemen for a second straight game... in an interview with John Moore during the first intermission, Marshall Lessard said he is once again dealing with a knee injury... Victoriaville's Juston Gendron was given a five-major and game misconduct for charge on Tomasz Szczerba in the second period... Peter Reynolds, Brady Burns and Cam MacDonald all had five shots... MacDonald had five hits... Saint John won 45 of 73 faceoffs... Mike Eagles was one of Saint John's assistant coaches for this game, joining Travis Crickard and Jeff Hansen behind the bench... attendance was 2,148... the Sea Dogs and Tigres meet again on Sunday in Victoriaville.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs begin a three-game Quebec road trip in Sherbrooke on Friday night.