Recap: Sea Dogs lose 4-3

FINAL: Saint John 3, Charlottetown 4

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

CHARLOTTETOWN - The Saint John Sea Dogs came up just short in a 4-3 loss to the Charlottetown Islanders on Friday at Eastlink Centre.

Islanders netminder Aksels Ozols made 34 saves in a first star performance. The Sea Dogs outshot the Islanders 37-22 in the game.

Kyle Powers, Michael Horth, Matthew Butler and Ross Campbell all scored for Charlottetown, who pushed ahead of Saint John in the standings with the victory.

Darien Reynolds — in his first QMJHL game — along with Luka Benoit and Pavel Simek all scored for Saint John. Justin Robinson made 18 saves in the loss.

The Sea Dogs have now dropped three straight games with three games remaining — all against the Halifax Mooseheads — before the holiday break.

LINEUP

Simek - P. Reynolds - Beveridge

Calder - Elie - Reinhart

D. Reynolds - Pierre-Noel - Beaulieu

Benoit - Laforge - Bellemare

Tivey - Ianniello

Bilodeau - Gauthier

MacLean - Dassylva

Robinson

Leaver

SCRATCHES: The Sea Dogs were without forwards Eriks Mateiko (Latvia world junior camp) and Danny Akkouche (healthy) along with defensemen Benjamin Amyot (injury) and Matteo Mann (injury).

NOTES: With Eriks Mateiko away, Egan Beveridge returned from injury and slid onto the first line... defenseman Joseph Ianniello also returned from injury... forward Danny Akkouche, who has slid down the lineup in recent games, was Saint John's final scratch... Darien Reynolds had a goal, three shots and three his in his QMJHL debut... Peter Reynolds had seven shots... Peter Reynolds had a six-game road point streak come to an end... the Sea Dogs had a three-game road winning streak come to an end... attendance was 2,500.

HIGHLIGHTS

NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs play their final home game of the first half tomorrow night, hosting the Halifax Mooseheads at 7 p.m.