Sea Dogs rolling into December

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs certainly ended November with a bang.

The Sea Dogs won their third straight road game on Thursday night in Moncton, defeating the Wildcats 7-4. The Sea Dogs end November with four wins in their past five games and five wins in their past eight.

Thursday's victory pushed Saint John into fourth in the Maritimes Division and seventh in the Eastern Conference with a 10-13-1-2 record for 23 points. They have two big games coming up on home ice this weekend, both against teams they are chasing in the standings — Cape Breton (28 points) on Saturday night and Chicoutimi (30 points) on Sunday afternoon.

The Sea Dogs are 0-2-1-0 against the Eagles this season and 1-0-0-0 against the Sagueneens.

Much of Saint John's recent success has run through Peter Reynolds, Vince Elie and Eriks Mateiko, all three of whom had tremendous Novembers.

Reynolds: 11 games, 10 goals, 10 assists

Elie: 12 games, eight goals, eight assists

Mateiko: 12 games, eight goals, eight assists

Other forwards, like Pavel Simek and Noah Reinhart, also had strong offensive performances in November. The defense certainly improved from some ugly performances in October and the team continues to get solid goaltending from Patrick Leaver and Justin Robinson.

Saint John's power play, which was woeful early in the season, has also turned a corner in recent weeks.

Reynolds, as of Friday night, sat in a tie for fifth in QMJHL scoring with 37 points. He's already nearing his career high for points in a season (44), which was set last year.

Peter Reynolds also becomes the first player in Sea Dogs history with five games of 3 or more goals in franchise history. Breaks tie atop charts with Danick Gauthier, Jonathan Huberdeau, Michael Kirkpatrick and Nathan Noel. https://t.co/v4uA9b5PrG

— Geoffrey Brandow (@GeoffreyBrandow) December 1, 2023

All of this comes at an interesting time with the QMJHL's trading period set to begin in a couple weeks. It's still hard to say how many moves the Sea Dogs may make, but a number of players certainly put on strong auditions for contending teams this past month.