Sunday, September 24, 2023

Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3 (SO)

FINAL: Bathurst 4, Saint John 3 (SO)
Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - A 51-save performance from Patrick Leaver wasn't quite enough as the Saint John Sea Dogs fell 4-3 in a shootout to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Saturday at TD Station.

Leaver kept the Sea Dogs in the game at times as Bathurst heavily outshot Saint John for much of the night. Shots ended 54-26 in favour of the Titan which included 18-7 and 24-9 shot advantages in the first and second periods, respectively. 

Despite the lopsided shot total, the Sea Dogs very well could have won this game. Saint John was able to take advantage of some of their quality scoring chances but the puck simply didn't roll their way on quite a few others.

Milos Roelens, Donovan Arsenault and Louis-Francois Belanger scored for Bathurst. Josh Fleming made 23 saves in the win.

Nate Tivey, Pavel Simek and Vince Elie scored for Saint John.

The Titan were pressing late in the first period and were finally rewarded at 14:53 when Roelens scored to put the visitors up 1-0. 

Tivey got Saint John on the board at 4:49 of the second period. The defenseman crossed the blue line,  accepted the puck from Eriks Mateiko and wired a hard wrist shot under the crossbar and in to make it a 1-1 game.

Arsenault quickly put Bathurst back in front at 6:42. Joseph Henneberry was along the backboards and fed Arsenault in the circle who beat Leaver with a quick one-time shot.

The Titan continued to heavily outshoot the Sea Dogs throughout the middle frame but, despite that, headed to the dressing with a 2-2 tie. Simek evened things up with a long breakaway goal with 1:25 remaining.

Things took a turn in the third period with a couple sequences of rough stuff that included an actual fight and a couple "sorta fights." Later on while shorthanded at 12:19, Belanger fired a shot high that went off the back glass and took a friendly bounce in front. With Leaver out of position, Belanger put in the loose puck to give Bathurst a 3-2 lead.

Saint John quickly tied the game at 13:18. On a power play and with Mateiko providing a screen in front, Elie netted his second of the season to make it a 3-3 game. 

After a scoreless — but very entertaining — overtime, the game would require a shootout. Bobby Orr scored on the first shot of the breakaway contest and that would be the only goal scored. Mathis Gauthier come very close to evening it up on Saint John's last shot but nailed the crossbar.

LINEUP
Mateiko - Reynolds - Reinhart
Simek - Elie - Benoit
Akkouche - Beveridge - Bellemare
Calder - Pierre-Noel - Beaulieu

Tivey - Ianniello
Bilodeau - Gauthier
Dassylva - Amyot
MacLean

Leaver
Robinson

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Kency Pierre-Noel, Sam-Luca Thifault (injury) and Nico Laforge (injury) along with defenseman Matteo Mann (injury/NHL camp).

PUCK DROP: Wrestling legend Bret "The Hitman" Hart, who was in town promoting his rum, performed the ceremonial faceoff alongside team sponsors. Notably, former Sea Dogs defenseman Kevin Gagne was part of the group from Moosehead.

THIRD PERIOD ROUGH STUFF: A huge hit from Reid Calder at 6:06 of the third period created all kinds of chaos. Calder was given a checking to the head major and game misconduct on the play while a few others were given roughing penalties and misconducts for near fights. Soon after, Noah Reinhart and Alexandre Lallier got into it and were handed fighting majors and game misconducts. This will be our first look at how the QMJHL's new fighting rules handle these incidents.

GREAT CROWD: Tickets were just $7 for this game (plus taxes and fees) and the promo produced a great and lively crowd of 4,837 — even with Classified performing at the Container Village this evening.
NOTES: Forward Nico Laforge, who remains out with an injury, took part in the team's pre-game introductions... it looked Luka Benoit either lost or broke a skate blade during the pre-game introductions... with 39.2 seconds remaining in the first, there was a delay to repair the holes in the ice that keep the net in place... Louis-Francois Belanger's third period goal was the first of his QMJHL career... Vince Elie's third period goal was Saint John's first power play marker of the year... Saint John struggled in the faceoff circle again but did improve as the game moved along. Bathurst had a 39-28 edge... Vince Elie and Pavel Simek both had goals in both games this weekend.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs host the Cape Breton Eagles on Friday at 7 p.m. at TD Station.
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